Working Sinnoh With Skill!
by 0 Jordinio 0
Summary: Due to a surprising event, Ash Ketchum finds his plans to travel the Sinnoh Region abruptly changing before he ever even got on the boat. Either way, it wasn't going to stop him from becoming the best. The Battle Frontier had tested his resolve and fell before his might, the Sinnoh Region was the next stepping stone on his road to become the master. Re-uploaded.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay guys. I really need to draw the line somewhere. If I leave my account for a few days, I come back to find literally like twenty or more messages asking me about Working Sinnoh With Skill and some even outright ordering me to repost it.**

 **Big thanks to Rikimaru Black for sending me the litera, entire story. You were a big help mate.**

 **I know many of you think I could easily just rewrite most of this story to make it better, and I could. But as you know, I'm extremely busy at the moment and rewriting over 100k words will probably take me ages.**

 **So I'll just settle for reposting the old chapters and continue from where I left off.**

 **I've no idea why so many people liked this steaming pile of shit, but I'll happily re-upload it if the spam pm's about it stop.**

 **Like seriously, stop. It makes it a bother to read proper messages.**

.oOo.

Ash Ketchum, recently-turned fourteen year old Pokemon Master in training grinned as he looked towards the bright sunny ocean sky, he struggled to contain a shiver of excitement as a Staraptor flew over head, a Pokemon he'd just recently heard of by intense search in his Pokedex after a battle with his old Rival (and tentative friend, when he wasn't being an arrogant asshole) Gary.

That sure had been a surprising battle, seeing a Pokemon he'd never heard of before that came from a region he'd also never head about, the Sinnoh region.

He'd originally planned on using Pikachu against that Electivire of Gary's, he was totally blind-sided when his little Totodile burst onto the field instead, but, looking back on it now, it was to be expected, he could admit to himself now that he hadn't been paying much attention to his old Pokemon and that was why he currently had five Pokeballs strapped to his belt rather than the single one he planned out starting with, that being Pikachu's. What right did he have to catch new Pokemon if after he was done with them he was just going to abandon them at the Oak Ranch, catch more and then do it all over again?

Of course he'd have only had four Pokeballs if that mischievous Aipom of his didn't somehow sneak aboard the ship to the Sinnoh Region carrying her Pokeball. Although he privately wondered when he'd meet a coordinator to take her off his hands, she wasn't much for battling and was glued to the T.V whenever a contest was on.

But he digressed, he couldn't honestly leave behind Totodile after the battle the little guy put up to prove himself to Ash, even shocking the hell out of his trainer when Totodile pushed himself to evolve into Croconaw when he was losing and win with a powerful Hydro Pump attack. Ash just couldn't hurt his Pokemon's feelings like that after all the work he'd put in.

And that's how he ended up with Cyndaquil giving him the teary eyes and almost begging tone, Ash couldn't say no to that either.

So he'd planned on heading to Sinnoh with three Pokemon, opposed to when he went to Hoenn with just Pikachu, then he'd gotten a surprise call from the Pokemon Ranger station up on Mt. Silver, they had called to tell him that an old friend was looking for him and he should head up there as soon as possible.

Imagine his surprise and delight when he found out that the young Larvitar he'd hatched from an egg and reunited with it's mother had finally grown up enough to leave the nest so to speak and went to the Ranger Station all alone. Supposedly it took a while for Larvitar to get his point across until they came upon a picture of him from when he helped Ranger Jack protect Manaphy.

They were all too happy to help Larvitar get in contact with Ash. That's also how he found himself in his new outfit, black and red sneakers with black cargo jeans kept in place with a silver belt, a white wife beater on his torso with, get this, the official small red and yellow Pokemon Ranger jacket and red headbang around his head, the headband and a small amount of gel made his hair fall back in lazy, wavy blue-ish black spikes. He'd miss his old hat, both because it was sentimental and because it really did block the sun from getting in his eyes, but it just didn't match his new look.

They wanted to reward him for all his help with Legendary Pokemon problems, specifically the dealing with the baby Lugia back in his Johto journey, Groudon and Kyogre when Team Aqua had gotten ahold of them both, the battle between Dexoy's and Rayquaza, not to mention the rabid wild Deoxy's and of course his help with rescuing Manaphy.

He shook his head with an amused grin, he'd gotten a standing ovation from the Rangers at the station when he made it to pick up Larvitar, imagine what they'd have done for him if they ever found out about his adventures with Mew, Mewtwo, Lugia, Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Entei, Suicune, Celebi, Latias, Latios, Sir Aaron's partner Lucario and that fake but extremely powerful fake Groudon.

He sighed and shook his head fondly at all the great memories, he'd matured a lot since way back when he saw Ho-oh and that was why he currently had a large backpack that was more than twice as big as the old backpack he travelled with, there would be no Brock this time.

Of course he knew he couldn't just go off like that so he'd made sure to get some quick lessons in with Brock on the main dishes he'd made for them while travelling, easy to make and didn't take up much room, as well as the medicinal supplies Brock always carried and the most important thing, Brock's special Pokemon food for all types, written recipes and all.

Focusing on the backpack he could just make out the faint rhythmic breathing of something sleeping, Pikachu that is. The small electric mouse was quite happy with the backpack considering he kept his sleeping bag on the top inside it and Pikachu could just laze around and have a nice comfortable sleep whenever he wanted inside of the backpack because of it.

Ash breathed in deeply and gave a sigh of relief as he remembered his chat with Professor Oak before he left Pallet Town, he'd wanted to catch a good few Pokemon from Sinnoh and train them, but he couldn't do that with only one space left on his team, thankfully Professor Oak came to the rescue by informing him that, now he was an experienced trainer, he could increase the restriction of six Pokemon to thirteen.

Sadly though it seemed he would need to win a Grand Festival or League Championship before he could get the final increase to twenty.

Ash was broken from his thoughts as a loud voice echoed through the voice system on the large cruise ship.

"Attention all passengers we will be docking soon, please be ready to make port and we hope you enjoy your time in the Sinnoh Region." It blared, "I repeat, Attention all passengers we will be docking soon, please be ready to make port and we hope you enjoy your time in the Sinnoh Region."

Ash grinned as he stood up from the railing he was leaning on and stretched his arms, "Finally." He said, "A new region with new Pokemon, new Gym Battles and a whole new Pokemon League to conquer."

He was especially happy that he would have no Team Rocket trouble this time around, it seemed Giovanni had fired them for failing nearly four years at attempting to catch a 'simple' Pikachu.

.oOo.

Dawn Berlitz, recently-turned twelve year old Coordinator beginning her Coordinator journey looked on in awe as a blurry shape floated over the surface of Lake Verity, Piplup in her arms squeaked but she ignored it, content to watch the mystery Pokemon float above the lake surface, before the mist around it cleared and the shape disappeared.

"Lup, Piplup!" The small blue penguin in her arms chirped frantically in her arms.

Snapping from her awed gaze she raised an eyebrow and looked down at the Water type in her arms, noticing it was pointing her curiosity was peaked, "Okay what has you so spooke-" She began to say as she turned around, her eyes widened in fear though when she made the turn and she let out a loud scream of fear. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

Crawling along the tree tops and clicking angrily at them was a horde of Ariados at least a dozen strong, the Ariados she fought Piplup had sent packing with the little guy's Bide attack.

Trembling in fear, Piplup along with her, seeing as he was way too tired to fight, turned and began to run, but before she could even take a step one of the Ariados fired a String Shot straight at her feet and caught one of her pink boots, turning to look at what caught her, Dawn looked up in exceptional fright as every Ariados opened their mouths and began firing multiple bullets of a brown mud-like substance at her.

Both Piplup and her could only throw their arms up in an effort to lessen the damage, in their fear being unable to escape.

'I'm going to die already! I didn't even get to pick my first Pokemon! I'll never become a great Coordinator like Mom, I'll never meet great friends... I'll never fall in love and get married someday...' Dawn thought frantically at first, before time seemed to slow down and the attacks descended on both her and Piplup closer and closer as her thoughts went from frantic to pitying defeat.

She could see her death fast approaching... until a calm young male voice rang out over the clearing. "Cyndaquil, block those Sludge Bomb's with Flamethrower!"

When the attacks where only a few feet from them both, Dawn and Piplup looked up in awe as a large torrent of flames raged in front of them, blocking the Ariados' attacks and incinerating them into nothing.

.oOo.

Ash enjoyed the scenery as he walked along the road to Sandgem town, keeping an eye out for Pokemon as he walked, he'd seen a few Pokemon he'd only just recently heard of, like Burmy and a few Buneary but they weren't all that appealing choices to him.

He was startled as Pikachu, who was laying on his shoulder again, abruptly stood, "Pi Pikachu!" The little yellow mouse Pokemon cried, pointing eagerly towards the sky.

Looking up, Ash grinned as he caught sight of what Pikachu was pointing at, in the air above them a small grey and white bird-like Pokemon was leisurely flying, quickly he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his Pokedex - updated and upgraded by Professor Oak not too long ago - and aimed it towards the small bird-like Pokemon above, activating the Scan feature.

"Starly, the Starling Pokémon. Starly normally travels in a flock, but when alone, it is hard to notice. This Starly is Male and has the ability Keen Eye. Currently, this Starly knows the attacks Quick Attack, Whirlwind and Wing Attack."

"Perfect, a Flying Type is always a welcome Pokemon." Ash said as he turned his head to the shoulder Pikachu was standing on, "Okay Pikachu, hit it with a Thunderbolt." Ash ordered calmly.

Pikachu lifted his small fist and gave a nod in agreement before tensing his small paws and launching himself into the air, yellow electricity exploding from around his body and launching towards the airborne and unawares Starly. "Pika!" Pikachu shouted as he let the bolt loose.

Pikachu descended landing back on Ash's shoulder just as the large bolt of electricity reached Starly, the small bird Pokemon only having time to turn and blink in surprise before giving a loud cry of pain as the electricity washed over it.

Starly couldn't stand the attack and fell rapidly, crashing into the ground just a few feet from Ash and Pikachu, completely unconscious and unable to battle at all.

Ash sighed as he lifted an empty Pokeball from his silver belt and threw it at the comatose Flying and Normal type. Starly was sucked inside the Pokeball in a beam of red energy, before it shut and shook from side to side a few times, a red glow on the front. A few seconds at most before the Pokeball stopped completely, the red glow dying down and giving a soft 'ping'.

Walking over, he picked up the Pokeball, not bothering with his pose, for some weird reason the thought of doing it and getting caught doing it embarrassed him a great deal.

He looked at Pikachu on his shoulder with a soft smile, "It was to be expected I guess, it was only a few weeks ago that you beat Pyramid King Brandon's Regice, the strongest trainer in the battle frontier and a Legendary Pokemon, a dangerous combo and you've only gotten stronger since then." He said to his faithful companion.

Pikachu closed his eyes and flexed his small arm in a somewhat humorous attempt at showing his strength, Ash broke out into a small chuckle until he heard a loud female voice screaming through the forest. "!"

Startled, Ash narrowed his eyes and looked to Pikachu, "Let's go!" He ordered and took off running into the forest.

He didn't notice that purple haired teen that had stood a few feet behind him, an Elekid by his side, clenching his fist.

He'd planned on taunting the stranger with the Pikachu for catching such a weak Starly that was taken out in one hit, when he had heard what the Trainer had said to his Pikachu next, "Beat Brandon did you?" He growled before turning the to electric type by his side, "Elekid come!" He ordered sternly as he began walking down the road.

Ash sprinted through the forest canopy as fast as he could in the direction he heard the scream, it only took a few moments when he saw a clearing up ahead, a rather pretty girl with blue hair and a white hat on her head was laying on the grass a stream of thread that he just knew from experience was from a String Shot attack attached to one of her boots, she was wearing a black vest with a white undershirt, a very, Ash noted, short pink skirt, knee length black socks and a pair of Pink boots. Beside her, also cowering in fear just like her, was a small blue Penguin-like Pokemon.

As he got closer to the clearing, he noticed at least a dozen Ariados on top of the tree's around her opening their mouth and firing a barrage of attacks.

Quickly, Ash grabbed a Pokeball from his silver belt and leapt into action as he released the Pokemon inside, "Cyndaquil, block those Sludge Bomb's with Flamethrower." He ordered as he ran behind the Pokemon that appeared in front of him.

Cyndaquil was a small bipedal Pokémon with bluish fur on top of its body, and a milky colour on the underside. Although called the Fire Mouse Pokémon, Cyndaquil seemed to be a composite of features from the echidna, seen in the flames erupting from its back, and the shrew, seen in the general shaping of its body. Its eyes were closed and It had four red-colored spots on its back from which its flames erupted. It lacked claws on its forelimbs, but had a single claw on each hind foot.

Cyndaquil gave a nod as he opened his mouth and gave a loud cry of, "Cynda!" as a large torrent of flames erupted and sped through to the clearing, blocking the Sludge Bombs before they could reach the pretty blue haired girl, incinerating them into nothing.

With that Ash with Pikachu on his shoulder and Cyndaquil just a little bit in front of him, burst into the clearing and skidding to a halt in front of the girl who was lowering her hands from her face in wonder, her small blue penguin-like Pokemon follow after.

Ash didn't see the girl's awed face as he started ordering his Pokemon around, his mind quickly accessing the threat level of the enemy and how to beat them.

.oOo.

Ash growled as he faced the attacking Ariados, all of whom were clicking even angrier than before at him now, "Ari ari dos dos!" They clicked threateningly.

He turned and looked over his shoulder at the girl as he waited for the angry Spider Pokemon to make their move, "Don't worry, I'll protect you." He told her reassuringly with a small smile on his face before turning back to face his opponents.

Dawn, holding Piplup to her chest tightly, for some weird reason couldn't help the red hue that spread across her cheeks at his tone and easy going smile. So she did the only thing she could, nod dumbly and keep her mouth shut, hardly noticing the Pikachu on the slightly older looking boy's shoulder.

The Ariados finally attacked in their anger, their eyes blackening over as they launched small black energy beams from their eyes.

Dawn's eyes widened as she looked at all the beams twenty-four in total racing towards the standing still Cyndaquil, "Watch out!" She screamed desperately, closing her eyes.

Ash grinned, "Cyndaquil repel them with Flame Wheel."

Cyndaquil obeyed and jumped a foot or two into the air before tucking himself into a ball and spinning as a large wheel of fire surrounded his body, he hit the ground, not losing a hint of his spin as the Fire Pokemon held himself in place.

Dawn opened her eyes when she heard the command, and couldn't help the awed look that appeared in her eyes as she saw the black beams of energy dissolve on contact as they hit the large wheel of fire that was Cyndaquil, coming nowhere close to penetrating the protective fire.

Cyndaquil stopped spinning, landing on his feet and letting the Flame Wheel dissipate as he awaited his trainers next order, which didn't take long at all.

"Now Cyndaquil, hit them all with Flamethrower and send them packing!" He commanded next.

Cyndaquil opened his mouth again and launched another torrent of blazing flames straight towards the first Ariados who couldn't dodge in it's position in the tree, crying out in pain as the Flamethrower washed over it, before Cyndaquil turned his head and began to manoeuvre his powerful Flamethrower over each and every Ariados that gave loud cries of pain when the flames washed over them.

When the flames finally dissipated, all the Ariados were covered in burn and singe marks. They clicked angrily before turning and began running in the opposite direction over the trees in fear as Cyndaquil flared the fire on his back.

Grin still in place, Ash knelt down beside Cyndaquil and patted him on the head as he lifted the Pokeball from his silver belt "Great job Cyndaquil, take a nice long rest." He said soothingly as he returned the small Fire Type Pokemon to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy.

Standing up as he attached Cyndaquil's Pokeball back to his belt, Ash turned to the girl who he noted was staring at him with a little bit of awe, and just took a few moments to bask in it. It was a little immature, but playing the dashing hero was something he'd looked forward to when he had fantasized about his Pokemon journey back in Pallet before he'd gotten Pikachu.

He stared right back at her for a few moments before letting an easy smile slip onto his face as he reached down and offered his arm, "Here, let me help you." He said.

After he pulled the girl to her feet, she finally snapped from her daze. "Thank you for your help, we would have been goners if you didn't show up." she said, "I'm Dawn Berlitz by the way." She introduced herself.

Ash took that as his cue. "Ah, it was no biggie, I'm Ash Ketchum." He responded before looking around the clearing. "So, if you don't mind me asking, just why were those Ariados attacking you?" He asked curiously.

Dawn gave a deep sigh before she responded, "Well I just started out today as a Trainer and was hoping to get my first Pokemon, but at the lab this Piplup here and one of the other Starters, a Chimchar, ran off and I decided to try and help find them. I found Piplup and helped him escape a web the Ariados had gotten him stuck in so they attacked us, but I really thought Piplup had beat them back earlier by returning their attacks with Bide." She explained.

Ash nodded his head a few times during her explanation, waiting for her to finish, "So that means you're heading back to Professor Rowan's lab over in Sandgem town then?" Ash asked

Dawn nodded letting him know he'd gotten the nail right on the head, "Great, then we can head their together, I have to go sign up for the Sinnoh League." Ash continued before turning to the small yellow mouse Pokemon on his shoulder, "Ain't that right Pikachu?" He asked with a small chuckle in his voice.

"Pi Pikapi!" The small electric rodent replied happily as he rubbed his cheek against Ash's own.

Dawn smiled softly at the interaction "That's great!" She replied as they began walking out of the clearing.

"So you're a Pokemon Trainer then, not a Coordinator?" She asked after a few moments.

Ash turned his head to her a they walked, "Well I was primarily a Trainer to start with, I competed in the Indigo Plateau and the Silver Conference over in Kanto and Johto before I set my sights on Hoenn and then heard about contests." Ash told her, "I was travelling with this girl who knew next to nothing about Pokemon, but got really into Contests, so I helped he train for them as we travelled around Hoenn with a few other friends as I earned Gym Badges to compete in the Ever Grande Conference. So, while I consider myself a Trainer I have won a few contests." He concluded.

Dawn listened with rapt attention as he talked, "Wow, how have you done so far?" She asked.

Ash scratched his head, "Well, I've done okay I guess. I've been a Trainer for four years. I came in the top sixteen at the Indigo Plateau, top eight in both the Silver Conference and the Ever Grande Conference, I defeated the reigning champ at the Orange League and gained entry into their Hall of Fame and just recently I became the first ever Trainer to defeat the Kanto Battle Frontier." He explained with a large smile on his face, obviously proud of his accomplishments.

Dawn's eyes sparkled, "Woah that's so awesome! You must be a really tough Trainer!" She praised earnestly.

Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well I get by, although I've seen how Regional Champions like Cynthia and Lance battle, and I'm a little reluctant to admit it but in raw power I only have one Pokemon that even comes close to matching their Dragonite and Garchomp."

"Wow really? But why are you reluctant to admit that? Having a Pokemon that could possibly go toe to toe with a champions Pokemon is amazing isn't it?" Dawn asked confusedly.

Ash sighed as he looked towards the sky. "My dream is to become a Pokemon Master, I've been working on it for four years now and I still can't defeat a trainer of their level, sure I'm certain I could defeat a few of their Pokemon but in the end? I'd lose, no contest." Ash explained. "I still have a long way to go to defeat one of them." He continued somewhat sadly, before perking up and turning towards her, "So what about you?" He asked.

Dawn, who'd been listening again in slight awe as Ash explained his chances at beating a Champion perked up at his question and smiled brightly, "My dream is to become an accomplished and experienced Coordinator like my Mom!" She told him excitedly.

Ash grinned despite himself, an answer to his problem, but he'd take care of that later. He looked Dawn in the eyes after a few seconds grin still in place, "Coordinator huh? How about we travel together then?" He asked abruptly, "I've seen and competed in my fair share of Contests and I don't mean to brag but I know my way around the battlefield; I could show you the ropes, so to speak." He continued right after.

Dawn squealed excitedly, "Really, you mean it?" She asked with a brilliant smile, "Are you sure I won't just slow you down?"

Ash shook his head, "No way, I'd be happy to have you as a travelling companion, going new places and meeting new Pokemon is always better when you have friends to share it with." Ash replied honestly and reassuringly.

Dawn grinned excitedly as she jumped at Ash, hugging his arm right to her chest, "Then I accept!" She proclaimed happily.

Ash laughed and let her continue holding his arm, he didn't know why but he enjoyed the way she held possessively onto his arm. "So have you decided on what Pokemon you want to start with?" He asked, changing the subject.

Dawn either didn't notice she was holding his arm tightly or was content to do it as she smiled at him, "No way buster, of course I've picked but I'm not letting you know until I make the choice back at the lab!" She responded jokingly.

Pikachu and Piplup, having relocated themselves to the ground and were walking beside their trainers, both noticed they'd been forgotten and looked at each other, matching sly grins forming.

.oOo.

When they finally reached Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem Town, Ash stood back leaning against the wall, Pikachu back inside his large backpack asleep as he watched Dawn talk with the old man.

"Hmm, there's been stories of a Legendary Pokemon living in Lake Verity for a long time now." Professor Rowan explained after Dawn told him about what she saw back at the lake. "That might have been the Pokemon you saw."

"Wow, you think so?" Dawn asked reverently, "Awesome." She whispered.

Professor Rowan smiled down at her, "You had quite the day, perhaps not as expected but your journey has begun, so now it's time to give you your Pokeballs and Pokedex." He told her.

The dark green haired assistant held out a tray that contained five Pokeballs and a pink Pokedex, "Here you are."

As Dawn reached into the tray and took her Pokedex, Rowan continued his small lecture, "You see this Pokedex will provide with information about the various Pokemon you are sure to encounter." He lectured before reaching into the tray and picking up one of the shrunken Pokeballs, expanding it and allowing the empty Pokeball to open and show her the insides of it, "And these are your Pokeballs, very useful items for carrying your Pokemon around in." He continued.

With that he and his assistants turned towards the table that had all three Sinnoh Region starters standing atop it, "And now it is time for you to chose your Pokemon, and these are the three that are available to the first time trainers in the Sinnoh region." He said, "The Fire Type Chimchar." He continued as he looked at the Pokemon; it was a small orange chimp like Pokemon with a yellow underbelly and a small fire burning on its rear end. "The Water Type Piplup." He introduced next who was a small blue penguin like Pokemon, "And finally the Grass type Turtwig." Turtwig was a small four legged green Pokemon with a brown shell on it's back and a leaf sprouting from it's head. Professor Rowan turned his head and looked down at Dawn, "So have you decided which one you will choose?" He asked.

Dawn smiled up at him, "Yes sir I have, Piplup!"

Piplup pressed his small arms to his hips proudly. "Piplup!"

The Chimchar over in the corner of the room, who has been dancing in anticipation, face vaulted straight into the table.

"Good, then here is Piplup's Pokeball." Professor Rowan said as he lifted his hand and handed her the Pokeball in it.

Dawn took the Pokeball delicately and stepped forward towards the table to stand in front of Piplup. "Piplup, me and you have already been through a lot, we're really a team." She told the small blue Water Type Pokemon.

"Lup!" Piplup responded as he lifted his small blue arm in agreement.

"Okay let's go!" Dawn said as she lifted the Pokeball and returned Piplup in a beam of red energy.

Dawn was about to speak again when Professor Rowan beat her to it as he turned towards Ash, who was still leaning against the wall. "Now, I may be mistaken Mr. Ketchum but that jacket looks an aweful lot like the official Pokemon Ranger jackets."

Ash opened his eyes, but kept leaning against the wall nonetheless, "It is." He responded.

Proffessor Rowan nodded, "And why are you wearing it, might I ask?" He asked curiously.

Ash kicked up off the wall now, "I'm an honorary member of the elite Pokemon Ranger squad." He responded evenly, "I obviously couldn't become a full time member because I'm a Pokemon Trainer."

"Excuse me." Dawn cut in, "But what exactly is a Pokemon Ranger?" She asked curiously.

The female assistant of Professor Rowan with short red hair chimed in, "A Pokemon Ranger's job is to protect Pokemon all over the world from poachers, calm them down in the case of wild Pokemon becoming enraged, and much much more." She explained to Dawn.

"Wow, that's so cool." Dawn breathed.

"But how did you become a Pokemon Ranger in the first place? For one you're much younger than is usually allowed." Professor Rowan asked next.

Ash gave a sheepish laugh and scratched the back of his neck, "Well..." He spoke a little nervously, "I've been involved in saving and calming quite a few Legendary Pokemon."

Professor Rowan blinked, that was all the reaction he gave that noted he was quite shocked. "Indeed? What Legendaries might I ask?"

Ash scratched the back of his head anxiously, "Well, let's put it this way, the only Sinnoh native Legendary I've dealt with has been a Manapy, and outside of Sinnoh? Let's just say the only one I've not been up close and personal with has been Raikou." Ash explained.

"Oh wow! How many is that?" Dawn asked her eyes starry.

"That would be at least twenty Legendary Pokemon." Professor Rowan answered distantly.

'21 Actually.' Ash corrected mentally, but decided to keep his knowledge about Mew-Two to himself. Arceus knows the Pokemon deserved some peace to himself.

"Really? You've seen at least twenty Legendary Pokemon, how lucky!" Dawn gushed.

Ash saw the question in Professor Rowan's eyes and already knew what he was going to ask so decided to answer it now, "Yes, but even though I've seen that many Legendaries doesn't mean the Rangers would have accepted me, the only reason they accepted me is because I've defeated two Legendary Pokemon in one on one battle with my Pokemon." Ash responded to the unasked question. He paused as he realized something. "Actually, now that I think about it, those two were official battles, so they should be recorded and posted on my Trainer information page, if you feel like checking it out that is." He revealed.

He was about to continue when everybody in the room, Chimchar and Turtwig included, disappeared so fast they left dust clouds behind as they appeared at a computer at the other end of the lab, Chimchar and Turtwig leaning over Professor Rowan's shoulders as his assistant brought up Ash's official trainer page.

"...I guess seeing Legendary Pokemon in battle is something to be excited about?" Ash said to himself, a sweatdrop sliding down the back of his head, he didn't really understand why they were excited, but then again, almost every time he'd come into contact with a Legendary Pokemon he mostly always almost died, so he may be just the slightest bit biased.

He walked over just in time to see Charizard stop Articuno's Steel Wing attack with his bare hands, earning gasps of surprise from the audience, from there Charizard locked Articuno into a hold and spun into a backwards dive and performed his signature Siesmic Toss, when the smoke cleared, Charizard was shown standing tall and proud despite his various injuries and Articuno was down and out.

"Such an incredibly Charizard, going toe to toe with a Legendary Pokemon such as Articuno and coming out on top is no small feat." Proffessor Rowan complimented as he scrolled down the list of videos in his official trainer page before settling on the icon with Regice and clicking on it.

"Wow." Dawn breathed as she turned to face him, "Is that the Pokemon you were talking about earlier?" she asked.

Ash nodded, "Yeah, Charizard is without a doubt my most powerful Pokemon and he's no doubt even stronger now."

Dawn was about to ask something else, but she was cut off by Ash's voice on the computer.

"Pikachu, Iron Tail!"

Followed by the obvious cry of pain from Regice.

Turning back, Dawn watched in awe as Pikachu barraged Regice with attack after attack, only to be frozen and Regice to use rest and heal and Pikachu to break free and start the barrage of attacks all over again.

The battle continued for a full ten minutes easily, before Pikachu finally perseverance and defeated Regice with an extremely powerful Volt Tackle.

Dawn breathed out in awe again, "Ash I had no idea that little Pikachu you had on your shoulder was so powerful!"

Ash smirked confidently, "Pikachu was my first ever Pokemon, we pride ourselves in his power." He responded.

"Might I cut in with a question?" The female assistant asked.

Ash nodded to her, "If your Pikachu is strong enough to defeat a Legendary Pokemon, wouldn't it make much more sense to use a Thunder Stone and evolve it into a Raichu, wouldn't it be much more powerful then?" She asked.

"I don't force my Pokemon to evolve if they don't want to, if they do, great but if they're happy as they are who am I to force them?" Ash responded seriously. "So far Pikachu has preferred being a Pikachu, so that's how he'll stay."

Professor Rowan who had been quiet up until then with a contemplative look on his face deicded to cut in, "Interesting, you have given me a lot to think about Mr. Ketchum, now shouldn't you two be heading out now?" He asked.

Ash nodded, "Yeah." He turned towards Dawn, "Ready to go?" He asked.

Dawn smiled and nodded, "Yup!" She responded, giving him a thumbs up.

He and Dawn began walking towards the door, when Professor Rowan walked up behind them, "Just remember Dawn that if you need help, feel free to give me a call." He told them as they walked through the doors to the lab that slid open automatically, that's when they caught sight of a purple haired boy wearing a black and purple tracksuit glaring at Ash heatedly, "Yes, who are you?" Professor Rowan asked gruffly.

"The names Paul, and from the looks of things you're Professor Rowan." The now named Paul answered as he walked up and stood right in front of them, "I'm waiting for him." He said nodding his head at Ash.

"For me?" Ash asked questioningly.

"I heard you defeated Pyramid King Brandon, wanna battle?" Paul questioned.

Ash grinned, "A battle? Sure I'm game." He responded excitedly.

Professor Rowan spoke up now, "Then off to my back garden." He proclaimed.

.oOo.

Ash and Paul now stood on opposite sides of the grassy field, Pikachu hanging from Ash's shoulder now curiously.

"Wow, I've never seen a real Pokemon Battle before." Dawn said excitedly.

Ash grinned, "Well you're seeing one now so hold onto your hat." He told her.

"Hn." Paul grunted before turning his attention to Ash, "This will be a three on three Pokemon battle with no substitutes, the first to win two out of three wins, got it?" Paul asked rudely.

Ash grinned as he took a Pokeball from his belt, "I got it, then I'll start off with Croconaw." Ash responded as he released his Pokemon from the Pokeball.

Croconaw appeared just in front of Ash, dancing in place, Croconaw are medium-sized, bipedal crocodilian Pokémon, mostly blue in coloration with yellow accentuations and black eye markings. Croconaw had three clusters of red spikes on it's body, one with three prongs on its head like a crest, one with two prongs on its back, and one diamond-shaped spike on its tail. Croconaw had a set of pronounced, yellow jaws. Although. It possessed an asymmetrical, yellow-colored pattern on it's chest that somewhat resembled a spotted animal skin.

Paul grunted as he released his own Pokemon from it's Pokeball, "Elekid, stand by for battle." He ordered as his own Pokemon appeared in front of him.

Paul took the first move almost instantly. "Elekid, Thunderbolt now!" He ordered sternly.

Elekid spun it's arms fast before launching a large bolt of electricity at Croconaw.

"Catch it with both hands and then use Iron Tail." Ash commanded quickly.

"What?" Paul asked gapingly before his eyes widened as Croconaw caught the Thunderbolt with both arms and watched in stupefied awe as Croconaw's tail glowed white and electricity ran through it straight into the ground.

Ash seeing Paul's stupefied look answered the question he was going to ask. "I learned that back in the Hoenn Region." He told him before looking to Croconaw, "Now use Water Gun!"

From Croconaw's mouth a massive torrent of water shot out, a spiral of water spinning around the torrent showing the clear power of the attack.

Paul's eyes widened, "Elekid, Protect now!" He ordered.

Elekid nodded and held it's arms out in front of it as a thin green dome appeared around it, just as the Water Gun crashed into it. Elekid ground it's teeth as it struggled to hold up the Protect but finally it outlasted the attack.

They had no reprieve though as Croconaw came rushing in, "Now Croconaw, Ice Punch!" Ash ordered.

Paul gritted his teeth, "Elekid counter with Thunder Punch!" He commanded.

Elekid wasted no time and threw a punch covered in electricity straight towards Croconaw who had reached it now, one fist glowing deep icy blue.

"Catch it with your other hand and continue Ice Punch!" Ash shouted from the other side of the field.

Croconaw caught the Thunder Punch with his unused hand, giving a small cry of pain as he absorbed the attack, but continued nonetheless and followed up, punching elekid in the side of the face with the hand that was powered up with the Ice Punch.

Paul seemed to have no luck, because almost instantly, Elekid froze over in a block of ice. Paul gnashed his teeth in anger, "Break out of there now with Thunderbolt!" He shouted angrily.

Inside the block of ice Elekid let loose a powerful torrent of electricity, breaking most of the ice around it.

Unluckily, Ash gave them no chance to recover, "Hydro Pump now!" He ordered.

From Croconaw's mouth blasted a literal cannon of water zooming towards the immobile Elekid. Elekid only had time to widen it's eyes as it desperately tugged at the ice encasing it's feet before the powerful Water Attack crashed straight into it's face and catapulted it straight across the field, where it came to a stop after rolling for a few moments, swirls in it's eyes and unable to continue. The Hydro Pump being so powerful it destroyed the Ice that was around Elekid on impact.

"Nicely done Croconaw!" Ash cheered as he returned the now dancing again Pokemon to his Pokeball and switched it for another on his silver belt.

Paul glared at the Pokeball in his hand as he returned his Elekid, "That's all you've got?" He asked it angrily, grunting in anger he switched it with another Pokeball.

Standing next to Proffessor Rowan Dawn, with stars in her eyes said, "Wow, I had no idea moves could be used like that and Croconaw was so powerful it won despite the type disadvantage." Dawn gushed giddily. Growing up in a small town made one appreciate the more interesting things in life.

Professor Rowan answered her in his gruff voice, "Yes, using a Steel Type move like Iron Tail to channel the Thunderbolt directly into the ground was genius."

Paul sent out his Pokemon first this time "Chimchar, stand by for battle and you better not fail me or else!" Paul ordered cruelly.

Ash grinned as he took out his Pokedex and Scanned the Pokemon, "Wow, that's one of the Sinnoh Starters right?" He asked.

Paul just grunted and didn't deem him an answer.

He didn't need to, as Dex's voice was already telling Ash all he needed to know. "Chimchar, the Monkey Pokémon. Chimchar easily climbs the sheerest of walls and lives on mountain tops. When it sleeps, it's flames go out; a phenomenon that has been known to scare rookie Trainers, as a Fire Type's flame going out usually signifies death."

Ash looked at Chimchar in excitement, "I've gotta get me one of those." He said as he let out his newest Pokemon, "Starly, time for us to get acquainted. Starly appeared, flapping his wings gently in the air, briefly turning to give Ash a salute with his wing before turning back to facing Chimchar.

Paul glared angrily at Ash now, "I saw you catch that Pokemon just this morning, are you insulting me by using such a weak Pokemon to battle me?" He grit out.

Ash glared back now, "Any Pokemon can be strong, it just depends on how you use them."

"Whatever, your loss." Paul ground out angrily, "Chimchar, Flame Wheel now!"

Chimchar jumped and rolled into a large flaming wheel before shooting off at Starly like a rocket.

"Starly ascend!" Ash commanded.

Starly flew up quickly, narrowly dodging the powerful fire attack, "Now send it back to Paul with Whirlwhind!" Ash ordered.

Starly flapped his wings powerfully, just as the Flame wheel dissipated from around Chimchar, generating a powerful wind and sending Chimchar crashing back along the ground to beside Paul.

"Flamethrower now!" Paul demanded.

Chimchar opened it's small mouth and let a large torrent of flames fly straight at Starly.

Ash wasn't about to let the opportunity side though, "Starly spin straight underneath it using Quick Attack and then follow in with Wing Attack on Chimchar!" He instructed.

A White line blurred from behind Starly, as he span right out of the direction of the powerful Flamethrower and shot towards Chimchar before the attack had even ended with glowing white wings, Chimchar didn't get the time to dodge before Starly slashed painfully against it's face with one of it's wings, sending the small Chimp Pokemon tumbling to the ground.

Paul grunted angrily at the fights turn of events, he was so sure Chimchar was going to dominate the battle, "Chimchar, Dig now!" He demanded angrily.

Chimchar jumped to it's feet, a few bruises on it's body from Starly's Wing Attack but nothing major. Chimchar leapt to it's feet and prepared to dive straight into the ground and create a hole, but Ash had other plans.

"Starly, get to it quickly with Quick Attack and use your beak to grab one of it's arms then fly straight up." Ash shouted to his newest Pokemon.

Starly blurred forward, a line of light shooting from behind him as he moved so quickly, before Chimchar could fully finish it's dive into the ground, Starly had used his beak and grabbed Chimchar's arm and begun quickly fly straight up, slower than usual because of Chimchar's weight.

Paul almost shouted in anger, but calmed himself somewhat, "Get yourself free with your other hand use Fury Swipes!" He shouted up testily.

Chimchar began to slash at Starly's face with it's other hand but Starly held on through the pain as he reached the apex height of his flight and Ash took his cue, "Now throw it towards the ground and use Whirlwind!"

Chimchar yelped as Starly swung around and threw it straight down with his beak, before Starly began flapping his wings again, generating another strong wind that pushed straight into Chimchar, more than doubling it's speed towards the ground.

"Chimchar!" Chimchar cried out in fear, but could do nothing as it crashed straight into the ground creating a small crater from the impact and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Everyone waited in baited breath for the smoke to clear and when they did, there was one smirk, one smile, one whoop of joy and one growl of anger.

Chimchar was laying in the small crater, unconscious and unable to continue.

Paul growled in anger as he returned Chimchar and glared contemptibly at the Pokeball as Ash called Starly down to his shoulder, "Way to go Starly, first battle ever and you won!" Ash cheered his small Pokemon, who puffed up in pride.

Ash chuckled at Starly before lifting the Pokeball and returning it in a beam of red energy, just a Dawn came running over and threw herself onto Ash's back, "Way to go! You won!" She cheered.

Ash was about to respond when they heard Paul speak up at the Pokeball in his hand, "That was beyond pathetic, you lost to a Pokemon he caught just this morning, I can let Elekid's loss slide because it battled against an experienced and powerful Croconaw, but you were defeated by a common Starly." He spat out angrily, "I have no need for weaklings in my team, get out!" He spoke coldly as he released Chimchar covered in injuries from it's Pokeball in a flash of blue light.

Ash growled angrily with Dawn still hanging onto his back, "What the hell'd you do that for?" He asked angrily.

Paul glared right back, "There are a million Chimchar as weak as that pathetic weakling, as soon as I see a stronger one, I'll just grab it." He answered tonelessly, before turning and walking away only pausing briefly to give a short, curt bow to Professor Rowan in thanks for the their use of the field.

Ash growled angrily as he watched Paul walk away, but his eyes softened as he took in the sight of the Chimchar, small beaten and... alone.

He crouched down beside it, unaware that Dawn stood right behind him after vacating his back, "You know that guy's just a dick." Ash commented, ignoring the slight giggle from Dawn behind him, "You can come with me if you want, unlike Paul I can spot a great Pokemon when I see one." He said softly as he lifted an empty Pokeball up.

Chimchar watched Paul walk out of sight sadly before turning to Ash, he looked between the Pokeball and Ash before sighing and accepting the fate by closing his eyes and touching the Pokeball, allowing himself to be sucked in, no fight at all as the Pokeball gave a soft 'ding'.

Dawn behind Ash smiled softly down at him admiringly, 'He's so nice to Pokemon.' She thought.

Ash smiled as he stood up and turned to Professor Rowan, "Thanks for the field sir, but I think it's time me and Dawn hit the road." He turned and began walking away, beckoning for Dawn to follow him.

Dawn smiled and thanked Professor Rowan before running up to catch up beside Ash, "So where are we headed?" She asked.

Ash smiled at her as he turned towards her, "Well, I heard there's a contest in Jubilife City, you can make your début there." He told her.

Dawn squealed happily, "Oh yeah!" She shouted as she fist pumped.

.oOo.

A few hours later, Ash and Dawn had made it to the forest area just outside of Sandgem town, where Dawn watched in surprise as Ash went about cooking dinner, setting up camp and feeding all the Pokemon, including Piplup.

Although there were two Pokeballs she hadn't seen the contents of.

They were just sitting down to bowls of stew beside a camp fire when Ash spoke up, "So Dawn it's your Twelfth birthday today right?" Ash asked.

"Mhhmm." Dawn responded through the stew in her mouth.

Ash grinned, "Great, then how about I give you a present?" Ash asked.

"Really?" Dawn asked to which Ash nodded, "That'd be great!" She responded excitedly.

"Well then." Ash started as he took a Pokeball from his belt and placed it in front of her, "Here, this Pokemon should do you well in Contests, I've already trained her up a bit myself so she should be plenty strong for a beginner like you, although she is quite a bit mischievous." Ash explained. "It's her dream to take part in Contests, so please take care of her."

Dawn breathed out in awe, for maybe the tenth time that day, something she knew she had to stop doing, but couldn't help it. Standing up she decided to check out the Pokemon inside, "Go Pokeball!" She shouted excitedly as she released the Pokemon.

"Aipom!" The Pokemon that appeared in front of her cried out before hugging her legs, it was a small purple monkey Pokemon, with a long tail that had a large hand on the end.

"She's so cute!" She squealed as she picked Aipom up, hugging the small normal type to her chest.

Ash grinned, "Yeah, and she's quite the powerhouse too, the attacks she knows are Focus Punch, Swift, Double Team and Scratch, I'm sure you'll be able to create some great performances with her on your side." Ash explained.

He was about to continue, but Dawn had already returned Aipom to her Pokeball and glomped Ash, burying her head into his shoulder. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She mumbled into his shoulder gratefully.

Ash gave her an awkward hug, "Well, great to know you enjoy the present." He stated with a nervous chuckle.

Dawn pulled her face from his shoulder, not bothering to move from the hugging position because she quite liked it. "Are you kidding? I love it!" She shouted happily, before she and Ash burst out laughing.

And that's how Ash and Dawn's Sinnoh Journey began...

.oOo.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Ash grinned as he stood back out of the way, watching over Dawn as she stood a few feet away from a Buneary.

After he'd cooked them and the Pokemon breakfast they'd packed up their belongings and proceeded on their journey. They had been walking through the forest area for over an hour, Ash had been explaining the basics of how Contest Appeal rounds went and the theory behind using attacks to create varied effects when they came upon a Buneary bouncing happily through the forest clearing and Dawn just had to catch it because it was so 'cute'.

Ash shook his head, he didn't understand the concept of cute Pokemon, he preferred them powerful and slightly intimidating.

"Go for it Dawn." Ash encouraged.

Dawn's eyes gained a determined glint as she lifted a shrunken Pokeball, "I'm so psyched!" She crowed.

"Here we go!" She called as she lifted her arm back preparing to throw the shrunken Pokeball.

"Hold on!" Ash cut in, "You've gotta make the Pokeball bigger first, but before that you should try to weaken it in battle." He corrected.

Dawn face-faulted before rising back up to her feet, a sheepish expression of her face, "Oops, I knew I forgot something." She stuttered. She grabbed another Pokeball and released the Pokemon inside, "Okay Piplup spotlight!" She called as Piplup appeared before her in a flash of light.

"Piplup!" The small Water type cried as he proudly stuck out his chest at the Buneary... who responded by opening it's mouth where a light blue ball of energy gathered before erupting in three crisscrossing beams of light blue energy.

Dawn panicked, and it showed on her face, "P-Piplup dodge!" She cried.

Piplup just managed to avoid the beam as it impacted with his previous spot causing it to freeze over in ice.

Dawn nervously raised her arm to give Piplup another command when she felt two hands softly grasp her shoulders from behind, and felt warm breath on her ear causing her to shiver slightly as goosebumps travelled along her skin, "Calm down Dawn, relax and let Buneary come to you." She heard Ash speak softly into her ear.

She sighed trying to relax her tense body, Ash was a lot more experienced when it came to Pokemon so she knew to trust his judgement.

Ash, seeing her relax into his slight embrace and rest her back against his chest, pushed on. "The basics of Pokemon battling come down to four things, A Pokemon's power, speed, defense and the Trainers judgement." Ash whispered in her ear again, causing her to shiver once again, "Attacking head on without reserve is for those who don't have any idea how to use strategy or those with Pokemon that have an extreme amount of strength and can afford to take hits, follow my advice because I've found one of the best ways to battle, at least in my own opinion."

Dawn sighed as she felt herself relax completely into Ash's chest, "I trust you." She whispered back.

Ash smiled softly down at her, seeing as he was a good head taller. "Good, now just follow what I say." He told her, Dawn nodding slightly in agreement.

"Buneary!" The small brown Rabbit Pokemon cried as it launched itself towards Piplup, it's ears drooping forward and glowing a faint white.

"That's a Dizzy Punch." Ash instructed. "Piplup may become confused if it hits, so wait until the last second before having Piplup sidestep or spin to the side, and then have Piplup follow up with Bubblebeam."

Dawn nodded, a red hue had gathered across her face and her heart was pounding almost painfully in her chest, but she was enjoying her position leaning against Ash's chest much more than she'd admit.

As Buneary was a few feet from Piplup and closing in fast, Dawn acted on Ash's advice, "Piplup spin to your side to dodge Buneary, when you come back around hit it with Bubblebeam." She ordered.

As Buneary was about to pummel Piplup with it's ears, the small blue Penguin Pokemon spun to the right, causing Buneary to soar straight past, exposing it's back to Piplup who opened his mouth and fired a stream of blue bubbles straight into the Normal Type Pokemon's back.

Buneary gave a cry of pain and fell to the ground unmoving and Piplup took that moment to puff his chest out in pride over his victory.

Dawn blinked as one of Ash's hands rose up from her shoulder holding an empty and already enlarged Pokeball and placed it in her hand, which was raised already from whan she'd gestured wildly when she'd given Piplup his orders; something she'd need to work on since it wasn't exactly graceful. "Catch it now." He whispered approvingly.

Dawn shivered again at the pleasurable feeling of his breath on her ear and neck but complied nonetheless, tossing the Pokeball jerkily from her position at the downed Buneary.

The Pokeball hit the comatose Pokemon, sucking it inside with a beam of ready energy, before the Pokeball dropped to the ground, rolled from side to side a few times and then settled down with a soft 'ding'.

It took a few moments for Dawn to realize it as Ash let her out of his embrace and stood beside her, but then it finally came to her and a brilliant smile lit up her face, "I just caught my first Pokemon!" She cheered happily.

Excitedly she ran over and grabbed the Pokeball. Lifting it up she stared at it joyously, "I can't believe I caught a Pokemon on my first try..." She said dazedly.

Ash chuckled as he walked up beside her, Pikachu jumping from his shoulder down to beside Piplup where both Electric and Water Pokemon proceeded to fist bump.

"You should scan the Pokeball with your Pokedex to see all the moves Buneary has. The biggest mistake a Trainer can make is not learning every bit of knowledge they can on their Pokemon, something I learned the hard way." Ash commented helpfully as he made it to beside her, snapping her out of her daze.

"Right!" Dawn responded energetically and grabbed her pink Pokedex. Flipping it open and pointing it towards the Pokeball in her other hand and hitting the button labelled 'scan'. A female, tinny voice spilled from the small speaker in the device. _"_ _Buneary, the Rabbit Pokémon. When sensing danger, it extends both ears as an alert, and when cold, it curls up and goes to sleep._ _This Buneary is Female and has the ability Klutz. Currently, this Buneary knows the attacks Dizzy Punch, Ice Beam, Bounce and Double Team."_

"Wow, that's a pretty good moveset for your first catch." Ash commented over her shoulder.

"Really?" She asked.

Ash nodded, "Yeah, Ice Beam for one is an extremely good elemental attack and not to mention it's great for contests." He responded.

Dawn smiled at him after a moment, "I wouldn't have been able to do it without your help, thank you Ash." She told him, before surprising himself and her as she stowed Buneary's Pokeball in her bag and threw her arms around Ash's neck, bringing him into a tight hug.

Ash blushed slightly, totally unprepared for the embrace, but after a few seconds he relaxed his tense posture and slipped his arms around her waist as he relaxed into it, bringing one arm up and gently dragging it up and down Dawn's back in a comforting manner, "Glad to help." He said softly into her head, in the process catching a good whiff of her hair.

' _Vanilla._ ' He registered the scent as, whether it was from her shampoo, perfume, or even just her natural scent. He didn't know, or care for that matter, he just couldn't help himself as he nuzzled her cheek against her white hat and, since it was so thin, by extension her hair. He didn't know why, but he enjoyed being so close to Dawn, sure he'd been hugged by a few girls, even kissed a few times, but he didn't really find Misty all that pretty to be honest, nor did he know Melody long enough to feel anything out of her kiss. Bianca or Latias, he cared for but not in that way, Bianca because while he did think she was pretty she was too absorbed in her art and did he even have to mention Latias? He was fond of the very affectionate Pokemon, like his Bayleef but he wasn't about to try and strike a relationship up with her, he wasn't into beastiality, or pokephilia, or whatever they were calling it these days, thank you very much.

The closest he had felt to the same as now with Dawn was with May, they'd hugged a few times, hell he'd even caught both himself and May staring into each other's eyes at times, so while that might have went somewhere, there was always that arrogant pretty boy Drewthat came between them, handing May roses left, right and centre, and flirting with her, something that annoyed him to no end.

Why the hell did someone who was so obviously gay have to flirt so much with girls?

He was broken from his thoughts when he slid down against the tree behind them into a sitting position, Dawn was near enough sitting in his lap hugging him, as he kept one arm around her waist and the other gently caressing her back.

"Can we stay like this for a little while? I'm enjoying it." Dawn pleaded softly, her hot breath washing against his neck causing him to shiver and his heart rate to increase.

Despite how inexperienced he was when it came to this type of thing, Ash found himself smiling into Dawn's hat as he took another whiff of her vanilla scented hair. "Sure Dawn, as long as you like." He responded comfortingly.

They sat like that for a few minutes, enjoying the closeness between them both before Ash decided to start a conversation, "Hey Dawn, do you have any plans for your first contest?" He asked.

He was surprised to get no answer, just Dawn continuing to softly breath against his neck, bending his neck down to get a better look a soft smile spread across his face as he saw both of Dawn's eyes closed and that she was asleep.

With his large backpack on, the position he was in was actually very comfortable, it was very soft against his back and then at his front Dawn was nice and warm and also felt very soft against him.

Within the gentle embrace of Dawn, he didn't even notice as his eyelids got heavy before drooping down and closing as he also fell asleep.

They forgot completely that two certain Pokemon were watching them.

Pikachu and Piplup grinned at each other as they fist bumped again, "( _Look's like we'll be seeing each other for quite a while to come my new bro._ )" Pikachu commented.

Piplup nodded his small blue head, "( _Dawn Ketchum does have a nice ring to it doesn't it?_ ) The small Water type Pokemon responded with a laugh.

Pikachu nodded in agreement, "( _Now, whatta you say we go do some training and let the two lovebirds sleep together in peace?_ ") Pikachu asked.

Piplup fist pumped, "( _I'm game!_ )" He responded energetically.

With that, both Electric and Water type Pokemon ran off into a deeper section of the forest, where Pikachu would humiliate Piplup for hours on end, but in doing so allowing the small blue penguin like Pokemon to become all the stronger.

After all, Pikachu couldn't allow the partner of his best friend for life's new soon-to-be girlfriend be unable to protect her, could he?

* * *

It was a few hours later when Dawn woke up first, snuggling into Ash's neck, before realizing where she was and what she was doing and thus, jumped up, startled, which woke Ash up as well. Dawn, realizing her sudden jump had caused her head to hit into his chin, started apologizing profusely, a small red hue across her face.

Ash had silenced her apologizing with one simple sentence, "It's okay Dawn, in fact I quite enjoyed it; aside from that last part anyway." He had told her, causing the small red hue on her face to turn into a full scarlet faced blush as he rubbed his chin.

And thus they had started back on their journey through the forest, Piplup having returned to his Pokeball on his own before they woke up because he was too tired to do anything else after training with Pikachu, and the electric mouse having climbed back into Ash's backpack to catch up on some Z's.

As they walked, they were so close to each other that they kept brushing up against one another, not that either of them seemed to mind.

It didn't take long at all before conversation was brought up again, despite them both enjoying the comfortable silence, "Hey Ash, what was the first Pokemon you caught?" Dawn asked curiously.

Ash let a melancholy smile spread across his face as he turned his face towards her, remembering his old buddy, "Ah, that would have been my old Butterfree back when he was a Caterpie." He replied.

"Wow a Butterfree really?" She asked before continuing quickly, "I've seen a few of them and they're really beautiful." She gushed.

Ash gave a laugh as he reached into his back pocket, "Oh Butterfree was definitely a beautiful Pokemon." He commented, pulling his Pokedex from his pocket before continuing, "Now the Pokedex, while having it's own set of images for Pokemon, also keeps the image of any Pokemon you scan." He told her as he lifted his Pokedex up and showed her the screen.

Dawn gasped as she got a good look at it, standing in the image was a younger Ash wearing a red and white cap, with a short blue sleeved blue jacket, but the most surprising thing about the image was the large blue Butterfly Pokemon with white and black wings sitting on Ash's shoulder as he reached up and stroked the Pokemon under it's chin as it leaned into his hand.

"Wow..." Dawn breathed, "He must be really strong by now."

"I wouldn't know, I released him back into the wild a long time ago." Ash replied sadly.

"But why?" Dawn asked, her voice almost pleading.

Ash gave her another melancholy smile as he lifted his Pokedex up again, this time the image on the screen being that of another Butterfree but this one's body being pink, "Butterfree found the love of his life so I let him go with her, it would have been selfish of me to keep him by my side when he had found someone to keep him happy." Ash replied softly, before giving a small chuckle a second later, "But I never did release him from the Pokeball so that no other trainer could catch him if they came across him, so technically he is still my Pokemon." Ash explained, chuckling softly.

Dawn gave a giggle, "I can understand that, I don't think many people would pass up the opportunity to catch such a great looking Pokemon, I know I wouldn't." She responded. They were interrupted as the sun above them seemed to get brighter, while small shining sparkles floated down around them.

"Wow, what's that?" Dawn asked.

Ash narrowed his eyes, knowing what kind of combinations a move like that could allow to be performed, "It's a Sunny Day attack, it powers up the attacks of fire types and allows a few others moves to be performed better. Solar Beam, for instance, can be launched a lot faster than is usually possible." He explained, reaching for Cyndaquil's Pokeball, alert and ready to act if anybody attacked.

He eased up his grip though as he saw a man that could pass for a prince walk into the clearing with a small Budew by his side, "Ah, hello my friends, I am sorry if we startled you, we are just enjoying the peace of the forest." The prince look-a-like apologized.

The man had long black hair and had what Ash could guess was a handsome face. The prince lookalike was wearing knee length brown boots, cream dress pants, a cream dress shirt with a green vest over it and a green hat, over his broad shoulders he had a long green cloak draped. "I am Nando the Bard." He introduced himself and for the first time Ash noted he had a mew shaped golden harp in his hands.

Ash smiled, "I'm Ash Ketchum."

Dawn introduced herself right after him, "And I'm Dawn Berlitz."

"A pleasure to meet you my young friends." Nando replied, quirking an eyebrow as Ash squatted down and softly rubbed the side of Budew's head.

"Dew." Budew cooed at Ash's soft ministrations.

"This is a pretty strong looking Budew you have here, I can tell you've raised it well." Ash commented as he stood back up.

"I thank you, but it is not I who should be taking the credit, Budew is the one that puts in all the work after all." Nando responded.

"Well then, great job Budew." Ash told the small Grass type Pokemon with a smile.

"Hey I've got it!" Dawn suddenly proclaimed.

"Got what Dawn?" Ash asked.

Dawn smiled at him, "Now I can show you how strong I've gotten." She replied before turning to face Nando, "Nando would you mind battling with me?" She asked.

"If that pleases you." Nando responded.

Ash took his chance to cut in, "Don't forget Dawn, this will be your very first battle with a Trainer, but remember what I told you earlier and you should do fine." Ash told her.

"Don't worry abut me Ash, with your advice I'll be fine." She replied.

Nando spoke up next, "Dawn, are you by chance on a quest to win the Sinnoh League?" He asked.

Dawn shook her head in the negative, "No, I'm on a quest to win the Grand festival." Dawn replied happily.

"I see, then a contest battle it is, there is a clearing up ahead that will be perfect for our needs." Nando responded.

"Great!" Dawn cheered.

With that all three Trainers, plus Budew, began walking through the forest together for a few minutes before they reached the clearing, Dawn and Nando taking up spaces opposite each other in the clearing and Ash standing directly behind Dawn so he could give her advice if she needed it.

Seeing Budew standing in front of Nando at the ready, Dawn extracted one of her Pokeballs and enlarged it in her hand, "Okay Buneary, spotlight!" She called as she released the small brown rabbit like Pokemon.

Ash smiled behind her, "Good choice, Buneary has two good moves that will cause Budew a lot of damage if they connect." He commented from behind her.

Dawn smiled at his praise, but didn't respond, instead she intended to take the first move, "Okay Buneary Ice Beam!" She ordered.

Buneary opened her mouth and quickly fired the crisscrossing light blue beams towards Budew.

"Please, dodge." Nando requested.

Budew obeyed and jumped to the side, narrowly dodging the Ice Beam as it froze over it's previous position.

"Please, Bullet Seed." Nando requested quickly.

Budew opened it's mouth and fired a multitude of yellow energy bullets towards Buneary.

Dawn remembering Ash's advice to counter and dodge when not using extremely powerful Pokemon thought of a manoeuvre on the fly, "Buneary use Bounce to jump over the attack and come down on Budew."

"Bun bun!" Buneary responded as she jumped straight up at least fifty feet into the air, dodging the Bullet Seed and coming down hard, stomping her feet into the face of Budew.

The small grass type gave a cry of pain as it crashed into the ground, but Nando continued undeterred, "Mega Drain if you please." He requested next.

Budew jumped to it's feet and the bud on Budew's head glowed white, as it shot a dark green beam from its bud at Buneary. The green beam grabbed Buneary before she could dodge, trapping it inside and began to suck her energy. As it did, Buneary became outlined in red and the beam also turned red. The beam released Buneary after a few moment and travelled quickly back to Budew. Budew glowed white when the beam returned back to it, and all of its injuries that it received from the Bounce attack disappeared.

"What? But how did Budew heal?" Dawn asked in astonishment.

Ash answered her from behind, "Mega Drain is an attack that steals the nutrients from the opponents body and gives them to the user, thus allowing the user to heal damage received in battle." Ash told her.

Dawn nodded, filing that tidbit of information away for now, "Okay Buneary, quickly Bounce again." She ordered.

Buneary obeyed and jumped straight high up into the air again, flipping over Budew's responding Bullet Seed, and as the small rabbit like Pokemon descended, Dawn made her move, "Now Ice Beam!" She called out.

As she descended Buneary opened her mouth and fired the light blue crisscrossing beams of Ice Beam at Budew, striking the Grass Type dead center and freezing it over in a block of ice.

Dawn whooped excitedly, "I won!" She cheered.

Her victory excitement was cut off by Ash though. "Not yet Dawn, look at Budew."

Shifting back to a serious attitude, Dawn looked back and gasped a bit as she saw Budew glowing a bright white inside the ice, before the ice started to break as Budew expanded in size.

"What's happening to Budew?" Dawn cried out in shock.

"It's evolving." Ash explained from behind.

When the white glow died down and the ice had broken away, in budews place now stood a green bipedal humanoid looking Pokemon with a leaf like dress and a rose in each hand, one red and the other blue.

"That's a Roselia, quick Dawn don't let it recover from your attacks finish it now." Ash barked from behind her, startling her into action.

"Buneary Ice Beam again!" she commanded.

Nando smiled, "Please fire Solar Beam." He requested.

Buneary opened her mouth and fired the light blue Ice Beam straight at Roselia only for the newly evolved Pokemon to hold both roses together now glowing a bright white before an large bright white beam erupted from the roses, completely overpowering the Ice Beam as they met halfway and crashing straight into Buneary powerfully.

Buneary gave a loud cry of pain before she was thrown back a good twenty feet, skidding to a halt just in front of Dawn covered in bruises and completely unconscious with swirls in her eyes.

Dawn looked at Buneary in horror as she dropped to her knees. "My Buneary." She muttered, devastated. Grabbing the Normal Type Pokemon gently and bringing her into a comforting embrace.

"It appears our battle is over, I thank you for giving Budew the push it needed to evolve." Nando thanked.

Dawn looked towards Roselia, "But how did it fire Solar Beam so fast?" She asked.

Ash answered her, "The Sunny Day from earlier allowed Roselia to charge the attack up much more quickly than it would have normally." He repeated from earlier.

"Thank you again, but I am afraid I underestimated you Dawn, and thus Roselia needs to go to the Pokemon Center right away so I can make sure nothing is wrong with it." Nando commented as he tossed them a small wave and returned Roselia, "I bid you adieu." He told them as he walked away.

Dawn sighed, "I can't believe I lost." She muttered.

"Don't feel so down Dawn." Ash told her as he gently grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet. "That was great for your first battle, much better than I did." He praised.

Dawn blushed, "You think so?"

Ash smiled gently at her, "Yeah you were great, you really put the advice I gave you to good use, if you had a little more experience I have no doubt you could probably have won that battle." Ash commented.

Dawn smiled at him in thanks for his praise as she returned Buneary to her Pokeball in a beam of red energy, "Buneary return."

It was then that they both noticed Ash was still holding her hand and blushed at each other. Ash loosened his grip and was about to let go when Dawn gripped his hand back, causing him to look at the blue haired girl.

Dawn smiled at him, "I like this, it's comforting so let's keep it doing it for now okay?" She asked.

Ash gave her a small smile as his blush lessened, "As long as you want Dawn." He responded kindly, "Now how about we get Buneary to the Pokemon Center? According to the map it isn't very far from here." He suggested.

Dawn nodded, "Let's go!" She cheered excitedly and began running, pulling Ash along with her.

Ash laughed outright at her enthusiasm and began running with her side by side, grasping her hand gently with his own as they ran.

* * *

Having reached the Pokemon Centre a few hours earlier, Ash and Dawn had booked a room together for the night and would be leaving the next morning to continue on their journey towards Jubilife City.

Ash stretched his arms up as he left the cafeteria, Dawn was currently having a shower back at their room so he'd decided to have dinner before heading out for a short training session with his Pokemon. After all, Starly was so close to mastering Aerial Ace he could almost taste it.

He blinked as he noticed Nando, the bard they'd met earlier that day sitting on a bench to the side of the hall, a contemplative look on his face, his Mew shaped harp nowhere to be seen, same with his Roselia. Ash guessed the Grass Pokemon was still resting after the battle it had with Dawn's Buneary, the small brown Rabbit Pokemon was still resting after all.

Decision made after a few moments of thought, Ash made his way over and sat down beside Nando on the bench.

They were both sitting silence for a few moments before Ash decided to break the comfortable silence himself, "You seem to be thinking hard, mind telling me what's on your mind? Maybe I can help?" Ash asked the older male.

Nando looked at him for a moment before nodding his head and giving a sigh, "I am having trouble choosing between a quest to win the Grand Conference as a Coordinator or a quest to conquer the Sinnoh League." He explained.

Ash nodded his head, a grin slowly spreading across his face before he stood up. "That's easy to decide." Ash commented as he began walking away.

Nando turned a curious look on Ash's retreating form, "How?" He asked simply, but that was all that was needed.

Ash grinned as he looked over his shoulder at Nando, "Do both." He answered nonchalantly," The Grand Conference always takes place a month or two before the Pokemon League in every region, I should know I studied it all when I was thinking of doing both back when I travelled through Hoenn, but I decided to stick to Gym Battling." He continued, before turning and disappearing down the hallway.

Nando smiled softly as he reached inside his green cloak and pulled out his golden Mew shaped harp, "Yes, yes I suppose it is as simple as that, thank you." He whispered gratefully before standing.

He stood up and began to walk slowly down the opposite side of the hallway from Ash, playing his harp in a soft melody, "There once was a young man named Ash, who met a young girl called Dawn, I look forward to the day their feelings finally clash, because I'm sure between them love will be born." He sang as he walked.

* * *

The next morning Ash and Dawn had a quick breakfast after a nice restful night of sleep, before Ash took Dawn out to the large clearing behind the Pokemon Centre to finally get her started on training her Pokemon.

"One of the most important things to remember about Pokemon battles is that your Pokemon can only go on fighting for so long." Ash had commented, "So the what you want to work on first is your Pokemon's Stamina, and with that in mind, you should have them practice by shooting attack after attack for as long as they are able." Ash had told her seriously.

And so, she had set her three Pokemon to building their stamina by performing their strongest attacks again and again. Aipom with Focus Punch, Piplup with Bubble Beam and Buneary with Ice Beam.

Dawn had never seen a Pokemon as exhausted as both her Piplup and Buneary when the hour was over, funnily enough though Aipom, while breathing a bit heavily, was not deterred in the least, something she attributed to Ash having trained the small purple monkey like Pokemon before he'd given her to Dawn.

And so after they'd returned their Pokemon when the training session was done, they had started back up on their journey towards Jubilife City.

They'd been walking for a good two hours when they heard a soft pained cry that stopped them in their tracks.

"Twig." It cried softly, almost pleadingly.

They both turned towards the source of the cry and Dawn gasped; in front of them between two bushes covered in bruises and looking like it was half starved was a Turtwig.

Ash acted instantly as he swung his backpack off his back and dropped to his knees as he began rooting around in the side pouches.

He looked to Dawn as he was doing that, "Dawn I heard a stream or maybe a river not to far from here, go get some water for this Turtwig while I check it's wounds." Ash told her, near enough ordered.

Despite how rude he came across, Dawn nodded, knowing he was thinking of the Pokemon, "Right." She agreed before running off into the foliage just as Ash pulled a bunch of medical supplies from his bag as well as a tin can with the shape of a leaf on the front and a medium sized blue bowl.

Opening the tin can, he quickly emptied a good amount of the Pokemon food inside, specifically made for Grass types straight into the ball, filling it up before setting it down in front of the Turtwig.

Turtwig weakly lifted itself to it's legs and slowly walked a few steps over to the bowl before bending down and eating the Pokemon food slowly.

Ash took his time now as he opened one of the medicine capsules and emptying two small blue pills into his palm, before closing the capsule over and setting it back in one of the pouches on the side of his backpack.

Reaching down he grabbed a spoon from the supplies he'd first grabbed from the backpack and used the back end of it to crush the two blue pills in his hand into dust.

Setting the spoon down, he reached his hand over to the bowl Turtwig was eating from and sprinkled the now blue dust over the Pokemon food.

Turtwig stopped eating, looking hesitant now that Ash had placed something in it.

Ash smiled gently as he reached down and softly rubbed the sift of Turtwig's head, "Don't worry little guy, it's medicine that will dull the pain you're feeling and make you a little drowsy." Ash explained gently.

Turtwig leaned into his palm gently as he caressed the small Grass Type Pokemon softly, before it began eating again. Turtwig finished the bowl of food quickly, causing Ash to smile before he pulled the last of the supplies he'd taken from the backpack into his hand, a good and full orange bottle of Super Potion.

Reaching down he gently rubbed the now drowsy Turtwig's head again, causing the Pokemon's eyes to droop as it lay down and fell asleep. He didn't really need to give it the blue pills, but it was already in quite a bit of pain by the looks of things and he didn't want to add on to it, so he'd given the Turtwig the pills that were a strong painkiller of sort that numbed the senses and made the taker extremely sleepy.

"There, now you won't feel a thing." Ash said as he sprayed the Super Potion over Turtwig's wounds, and just like he said Turtwig didn't so much as wince from the sting the effects of Super Potion usually caused as it healed injuries.

Reaching down he cleaned off the bowl before setting it back in the Pouch in his backpack along with the other supplies and stood up as he swung the backpack back on.

He contemplated leaving it on it's own but decided against it, he didn't want it to be attacked and be unable to defend itself.

Reaching into his backpocket he idly pulled out his Pokedex, aimed it at the sleeping figure of Turtwig and hitting the Scan button. " _Turtwig, the Tiny Leaf Pokémon. Its shell is made of earth and when it absorbs water, it becomes harder._ _This Turtwig is Male and has the ability Overgrow. Currently, this Turtwig knows the attacks Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Bite and Double-Edge_ _."_

Ash whistled in appreciation, "That is one good set of moves." He praised.

He idly wondered what could have injured Turtwig that badly with how strong it seemed, enough to make Turtwig unable to gather food on his own.

He was getting a bit worried for Dawn now though, she'd been gone for a lot longer than he'd expected almost twenty-minutes now, he wanted to go out and look for her but he couldn't just leave Turtwig alone and defenseless.

His decision was made for him though a few seconds later.

"!" He heard Dawn scream loudly over the forest, acting on instinct he grabbed a Pokeball from his silver belt as he began running, touching it to Turtwig's head and sucking the Pokemon inside in a flash of red energy as he ran past.

Turtwig put up no resistance as he was caught, and Ash clipped his newest Pokemon's Pokeball to his silver belt as he sprinted towards where he heard Dawn's voice.

It took him a minute, but he finally burst out of the foliage of the forest into a rocky area with a stream not to far away.

He spotted Dawn laying on the ground, a large Rhydon standing over her, behind her a fat balding headed man wearing stained overalls grinned cruelly at her as he held up three Pokeballs. Pokeballs he assumed were Dawn's seeing as she had no Pokemon out.

"Thank's for the Pokemon girly, too bad that Turtwig from the other day got away or else I'd only need a Chimchar to complete the set and would make off with a shit load of cash from selling them, but I suppose your Pokemon will have to do I guess." He sneered out, loudly at her.

Well that was his questions about Turtwig answered, it seemed.

Ash ground his teeth angrily as he looked towards his backpack over his shoulder, "Pikachu." He said simply.

The small electric mouse poked his head out of Ash's backpack curiously before noticing Dawn's position and narrowed his small eyes, his cheeks sparking dangerously "Hit it with Iron Tail." Ash ordered calmly.

Pikachu nodded before jumping from the backpack and speeding across the rocky terrain, his lightning bolt shaped tail glowing a bright silvery white and reached the Rhydon within a blink.

Jumping Pikachu smacked the underside of Rhydon's chin and sent the large Ground and Rock Type Pokemon soaring into the air from the force behind the attack.

Both Dawn and the fat man had two different reactions. Dawn gave a relieved sigh and the fat man gaped in shock as a small Pikachu sent his large Rhydon soaring.

That's when Ash's voice alerted them to his presence, "It's in the air now Pikachu so it can't redirect your electric attacks into the ground, finish it off with Thunder." Ash ordered evenly but there was a hint of danger in his voice.

Pikachu landed on the ground, but immediately erupted in a large electrical aura as he gave a deafening cry of "Pika!", launching a massive electric bolt of energy straight up at Rhydon, the bolt of electricity easily dwarfing the width of Rhydon.

The electricity from the Thunder attack went to high, piercing the clouds and kept up for a few moments before dying down and allowing Rhydon to drop to the ground, blackened and charred, with a loud thud, shaking the terrain from it's weight.

Ash glared through his bangs as he walked into the clearing and stood in front of Dawn protectively, Pikachu jumping onto his shoulder and sparking his cheeks threateningly at the fat man.

"Drop the Pokeballs, return your Rhydon and beat it." Ash growled, "If I ever hear about you trying to steal Pokemon again, it will be you instead of Rhydon next time. Rhydon got off lucky with some charred hide, you on the other hand... you'll be lucky if just your heart explodes." He threatened.

The fat man nodded meekly as he dropped Dawn's Pokeballs to the ground and returned Rhydon, a dark grey wet stain appearing on his grey trousers before he turned tail and ran away like a coward.

Ash nodded to Pikachu who nodded in understanding as he leapt of of his shoulder and made his way over to Dawn's fallen Pokeballs.

While Pikachu was doing that, Ash turned to Dawn and gently pulled her to her feet. She startled him by immediately wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly as small sobs racked her body, "I was so scared." She whispered.

Ash rubbed her back gently like he did the morning before, "Shhh." He said soothingly.

But Dawn continued, "I thought he was going to steal my Pokemon and hurt me, or maybe even worse." She whispered again, despairingly.

Ash brought the hand that wasn't rubbing her back and wrapped around it around her waist, pulling her into the hug tighter, "Don't worry, I wont let anything happen to you." Ash replied softly.

Dawn pulled back slightly from his neck and looked up into his amber eyes with her own teary deep blue eyes, "Really?" She asked desperately.

Ash nodded, "Of course." He responded giving her a soft smile.

"You'll protect me then?" She asked next.

Ash nodded resolutely, "Always." He responded confidently.

Dawn pulled back and graced him with a grateful smile as she rubbed the tears from her eyes, "Thank you." She whispered.

Ash nodded as Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder again, raising his hand to catch the Pokeballs as Pikachu dropped them.

He grasped Dawn's wrist with the unoccupied hand and then planted the three shrunken Pokeballs into her palm, "Here, I think these are yours." Ash said.

Dawn graced him with another small smile, "Thank you." She said before turning her head, "And you too Pikachu." She continued.

She turned to begin walking back the way were they'd met Turtwig before she stopped and turned to face Ash again, "What happened to that Turtwig?" She asked curiously.

Ash grinned as he pointed to a Pokeball on his silver belt, "That would be his new Pokeball." He responded cheerfully.

Dawn gave a happy giggle as they both began walking out of the rocky terrain beside the stream and back into the forest foliage.

Ash paused for a moment, "Are you sure you're okay Dawn?" He asked concernedly.

Dawn turned to face him and now graced him again, but this time with a brilliant happy smile, "With you with me?" She asked, "I'll be fine, no need to worry." She responded with complete confidence.

Ash grinned and threw an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a side hug, "And don't forget it, trust me and I'll make sure nothing happens to you." Ash told her.

Her face still holding a brilliant happy smile, gave him the response he'd been hoping for, subconsciously at least, "I trust you." She confessed.

It wouldn't be long now when that thought went from his subconcious, right into his active thoughts.

Pikachu grinned and chirped in from the shoulder Dawn wasn't leaning in against, "Pi Pikachu Pikapii! ( _Way to go Ash! I always knew you'd be a babe magnet!_ )" He cheered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

The next morning Ash served breakfast to Dawn and the Pokemon at their campsite, Dawn was sitting looking through her Pokedex on potential moves for her Pokemon as Ash filled her bowl and then went on to fill the bowls for the Pokemon.

Pikachu, Cyndaquil, Croconaw, Starly, Piplup, Aipom and Buneary all ate happily as Ash squatted down on his haunches in front of his two newest Pokemon, whom were looking hesitant to eat. Ash figured out the reasons easily enough, Chimchar was used to harsh treatment from Paul and so was rather confused abut how easy going Ash was, and Turtwig was new.

Larvitar wouldn't be getting out of his Pokeball for roughly another week or two, the small green powerhouse was going through it's hibernation period, something that, thanks to talking to his old friend Richie, he was able to find out meant that Larvitar was getting ready to evolve.

Ash raised his eyebrow as he reached equal height with his newest Pokemon, "So what's up?" He asked.

Both Pokemon seemed stupefied by his behaviour, something Ash took notice of when he saw there bewildered expressions, and so gave them both an easy laugh as he reached down and gently rubbed both of their heads, "No need to be so confused, you guys are my Pokemon now, which means we're family now, and as family it's my job to make sure your guys lives are content and happy." He explained.

He got two different reactions to his heartfelt words; Chimchar's eyes got watery and tears started to leak from the small fire chimps eyes and Turtwig... launched himself straight at Ash, biting down hard on his head with an eyesmile.

Ash yelped in a bit of surprised pain as he fell into a sitting position, "Gah!" But other than that the only reaction he gave was a small smile as he reached up and rubbed softly on the side of Turtwig's large head. The bite didn't really hurt all that much, after all his years of travelling he'd developed quite a pain threshold, he'd had to, what with the constant electrifying from Pikachu, scorching from Charizard, crushing hugs from Muk, beatings from Primeape and Body Slams from Bayleef.

After a few moments of allowing Turtwig to affectionaly nibble on his head, Ash gently reached up and pulled him off before setting him down beside Chimchar at their bowls of food and standing up, "Right, I'm gonna get my breakfast now, if you guys need or want a refill feel free to bring your bowls over, there's plenty more." He told them, getting an eager nod from Turtwig and a still hesitant one from Chimchar, who was probably still reeling from Ash's treatment of his Pokemon compared to Paul. Once he was sure they both understood him he turned and walked over to the portable table he'd set up outside both his and Dawn's tents.

"Hey Ash?" Dawn questioned as he sat down, peering at him with an excited smile on her pretty face over her pink Pokedex.

"Yeah?" Ash replied as he bit down on a bit of bacon before chewing and swallowing it as she spoke.

"Do you think that you could help me teach Piplup Hydro Pump?" She asked eagerly, literally bouncing up and down in her chair.

Ash raised an eyebrow before a small smile crossed his face, "Hydro Pump is one of the most powerful water type attacks behind the most powerful - that being Hydro Cannon - and yes I could probably teach Piplup Hydro Pump, but sorry to say Dawn he just isn't ready for that kind of fire power yet. He's just a bit too young and inexperienced, wait a few weeks, maybe a month and by then he'll probably have grown enough to learn it, that or if he evolves into a Prinplup, either way he would be better off in the long run if you waited a bit. After all, there's a reason it's usually fully evolved Pokemon who use Hydro Pump; the amount of energy and power it takes is staggering." He explained to the bluenette.

Dawn sighed in disappointment, "Aww, I was really hoping he'd be able to learn it by the time we participated in the Jubilife contest." She told him with a small pout on her face, making her look all the cuter to Ash.

Ash laughed, "Don't worry, while Hydro Pump is a great finisher move there's a great many attacks that don't require as much power and experience that can work just as well in the right circumstance. Brine, for instance, a move that's basically a weaker version of Hydro Pump but can equal it's power if your Pokemon gets more and more into a battle, or even a none damage attack like Mist; you could use a Mist attack to cover the entire battle arena and have Piplup use a stealth attack from different angles, disorienting and confusing the opponent, so much so that they may not even be able to come up with a counter before you finish them." Ash lectured.

"Wow..." Dawn breathed out in reply, "You sure do know a lot about how to use attacks to your advantage in battling Ash."

Ash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well, I've seen a lot of attacks used in a variety of ways, and you really need know how to counter moves like those in the Pokemon League, or else you won't last very long. Like a while back I battled a gym leaders Scyther with Cyndaquil who used Swords Dance, a non-defensive or attacking move, to completely repel fire type attacks, effectively defeating a bug Pokemon like Scyther's greatest weakness." He explained.

Dawn literally had stars in her eyes, "That sounds amazing, do you think I could develop a defense for Piplup against electric attacks?" She asked excitedly.

Ash gave a small laugh before he replied, "I've actually been working on an idea that might work with Piplup, I'll tell you about it when I've ironed out all the details." Ash replied easily.

Dawn pouted cutely again, drawing Ash's eyes briefly to her lips, shining slightly in the sun thanks to her lip gloss, "Fine..." She relented dejectedly, "What moves do you think I should start Piplup on learning?" She asked a moment later.

Ash tore his eyes from her soft looking pink lips as he let a thoughtful frown appear on his face for a moment. A few seconds later he replied as another small smile replaced the frown, "For now, I want you to work with Piplup to learn Mist, the Pokedex explains learning that move pretty well; it isn't that complicated a move and you should start him on gathering more and more energy into his beak when using Peck to lengthen it." Ash answered her.

Dawn nodded eagerly, before a confused frown encompassed her face, "I get the Mist attack, but why do you want Piplup to lengthen his beak when using Peck?" She asked confusedly.

Ash gave her a secretive smirk, "When he's got it down and mastered I'll tell you." He answered mysteriously.

Dawn sighed, but relented nonetheless; Ash had never let her down before, even if they'd only been travelling together for four days, but still she felt like she could trust the slightly older black haired boy with her life. He was, after all, sort of like her very own mentor when it came to Pokemon and she knew it was a teacher and mentor's job to make sure their students didn't get too far ahead of themselves. So, for now, she would relent and allow Ash to answer her questions when she got the move with Piplup down pat.

Ash opened his mouth and was about to say something else to his pretty female travelling companion when a harsh and almost angry sounding voice interrupted him, "I see you've taken in that pathetic old Chimchar of mine and got yourself a new Turtwig as well. Chimchar's still a weakling and that Turtwig hardly looks like anything worth catching in a Pokeball."

Ash had travelled for a while now and had met a lot of people like the boy behind him, so he let an easy going smile spread across his face as he turned in his chair to look over his shoulder at Paul, "Hey there Paul, nice to see you too, but I'd like to think that any Pokemon can be strong given the right Trainer seeing as how you had Chimchar for months and I still beat you with a very young Starly who I'd just caught a few hours earlier." Ash replied, his easy going smile turning into a grin when he saw Paul clench his teeth at his rather poorly hidden insult.

Paul growled audibly, "That was luck, I'm twice the trainer you'll ever be and I'm ready to prove it here and now, loser." He bit back scathingly.

Ash wasn't fazed in the lightest, Gary's mocking and cutting insults back when he just started his journey and was unsure of his skill as a trainer stung much worse than some angry teen's he hardly knew ever could.

Ash just laughed lightly as he stood up, cracking his neck slightly as he did and turned to face Paul, "Sure, I'm game, heck let's have a double battle and I'll even give you an advantage by picking my two Pokemon first." Ash replied as an almost feral grin stretched across his face, "And I think I'll beat you with Chimchar and Turtwig." He continued, his hidden insult hitting home when he saw Paul flinch and grind his teeth.

Ash ignored Paul for the moment as he turned to his two newest Pokemon, Turtwig had ran over to him and jumped in front of him excitedly. Obviously the small Pokemon was determined to prove himself to Ash as a way of thanking him for saving him and taking him in.

Chimchar though was where the problem lay, the small fire chimp had flinched away when Paul turned his murderous glare on him and was literally almost shaking in fear from his old trainer, Ash sighed and gave a slight glare at Paul over his shoulder before walking over and crouching down in front of Chimchar, giving him a reassuring and affectionate rub on the head, "Hey, don't worry about Paul, whatever he put you through I won't let him do it again, all you have to worry about is his Pokemon, if Paul tries anything I'll kick his ass myself." Ash soothed his newest Fire Type reassuringly

Dawn, who was the closest to him thanks to her chair being just behind him, heard him and snorted into her hand, trying to smother her laughter, Paul just outright ignored her, settling for glaring at Ash.

Dawn took a look at Paul discreetly before allowing her gaze to settle on Ash. Paul certainly didn't look like a pushover and would probably be able to fight pretty well, but with his ranger jacket on Dawn could see the hard muscles that Ash had gained from years of travelling. Not to mention from what he'd told her he was no stranger to life threatening situations. Heck, considering all the fights he himself had been in she was still sort of concerned about how crazy he must be! She had no doubt in her mind he was telling the truth when he told her about how he'd picked a fist fight with a legendary and ancient Lucario! A Lucario that had gone down in history as one that was able to battle Legendaries on equal footing and come out on top; one that Ash himself admitted had taken on a Regice, Regirock and Registeel at the same time and kept pace with the three Legendaries easily.

So, no, Paul was no pushover, but she was fairly certain if it came down to it, Ash would kick his rude ass up and down the forest clearing they were in and probably have a good time doing it.

Ash, she'd noticed, had a kind of weird warped sense of humor. She couldn't really blame him she supposed, he'd have to be at least a little crazy to partake in all of the events with Legendary Pokemon he'd told her about. That, and while he seemed oblivious to it mostly, he had a rather devil may care attitude when it came to danger to himself. He could shrug off the grandest of threats as long as they were aimed at him, it was only when those closest to him were threatened did he take it seriously.

Dawn was broken from her thoughts when Chimchar finally gave a small cheer and jumped onto Ash's shoulder as he walked towards his side of the clearing, so she sat herself back to watch and hopefully pick up some hints to being a better trainer. She remembered exactly what Professor Rowan had told her before she left with Ash to start her journey.

(Flashback)

"Dawn." Professor Rowan's gruff voice interrupted her from watching the battle between Chimchar and Starly.

The blue haired girl turned towards the old man curiously. "Yes?" She asked.

"Dawn..." He started, "While Ash may be humble about it, the fact is that the man Ash defeated in that video earlier, Brandon, is a trainer with skill and Pokemon compatible with some of the higher tier level of Elite four Members. He's quite famous for having challenged Cynthia herself at one point and almost defeating her, and that's without his Legendary Pokemon." He explained.

Dawn was puzzled about the way the conversation was going, and so questioned the old professor on it. "Yes, but why are you telling me this?" The bluenette asked confusedly.

Proffessor Rowan gave her a small smile as he answered with that rough and gruff voice of his again, "Like I said, your new friend is a humble one, but the fact of the matter is that if he can go toe to toe with trainers like Brandon in battle and come out the victor, then it means he would be quite capable of battling with any member of the Elite Four and coming out the victor, there is after all a video of him battling the strongest of the Kanto Elite Four, Agatha the ghost mistress before he started the battle frontier challenge, and his Pikachu almost defeated her strongest Pokemon, from what I saw of the battle, it was extremely close, Gengar came out of that battle barely standing and from what I saw of its battle with Regice, Pikachu has become all the stronger since that battle." He explained.

Dawn turned back to watching Ash battle the very experienced purple haired trainer and was defeating him rather soundly with a Pokemon he'd just caught before he'd rescued her, and despite herself couldn't quite help the awe she was feeling. "I can't believe I'm going to be travelling and learning from a Trainer who is as strong as the Elite Four..." She breathed out, her voice low and sounding almost breathless as she stared at Ash's boyish face and felt her cheeks flare with warmth and turn a red hue.

Something Professor Rowan picked up on as he laughed deeply in amusement, embarrassing the much younger girl.

(FlashBack End)

Suffice to say, Dawn was very much aware of what Professor Rowan was hinting at, Ash was still very young despite having journeyed for almost 4 years in total, but he was already nearing that pinnacle of strength that almost every trainer aspired to have, yet very few ever attained, travelling alone with him on her journey and having him mentor her, meant that there was much she could learn, and Ash had proved it with just how much he knew about Pokemon attacks and how he was able to defeat Chimchar with a Starly that had no experience in battle whatsoever and knew very few attacks, but it mattered little in the end because Ash knew just how to use his Pokemon in the most effective and rewarding ways.

Yes, Dawn was sure that if she even gained a quarter of the skill Ash had from learning under him she would go very far in the Contest circuit. Sure Ash had told her that after a while she'd have to come up with her own performances if she wanted to get far in the world of Pokemon, but that didn't mean Ash couldn't help her out and point her in the right direction.

Dawn leaned forward with a critical eye as she prepared to watch the battle closely.

Ash grinned at Paul as he reached his own side of the clearing – letting Chimchar jump down beside Turtwig, his partner for the battle, the small Grass Type giving Chimchar an eye smile, which the Fire Type hesitantly but genuinely when he made it to his side – crossing his arms Ash looked directly into Paul's eyes, grin still in place. "Well are you ready? I'd really like to get back to my breakfast before it gets cold." He said, his tone almost taunting.

Paul growled, doing what Ash wanted him to, allowing his anger to get the better of him as he grabbed two Pokeballs, roughly throwing them into the air and releasing his Pokemon, "Torterra! Magmar! Stand by for battle!" He shouted harshly.

In a flash of light, two Pokemon appeared in front of Paul, one was a large turtle-like four legged dinosaur looking Pokemon, it possessed a giant, flat-looking shell, on the shell rested a single, oak shaped tree and three triangular, gray-colored stony extensions resembling mountain peaks, The upper portions of it's body and its lower jaw were green, and they bore two large spikes, like the ones on it's shell that jutted out of the sides of it's head making it look somewhat like an Ankylosaurus. It's eyes were intimidating, encircled by a black ring the small red pupils gleamed. It's mouth jagged and at the end of it's snout was a dark brown beak, giving it the appearance of a snapping turtle. It's thick, tree trunk legs were massive and powerful in order to hold up it's enormous, heavy body. It bore four toes on each of it's legs, which appeared as if they were actually jagged stones, with three in the front and one on the heel.

Ash grinned when he saw it, "Wow, so that's Turtwig's fully evolved form, it looks powerful." He commented rather excitedly, his two Pokemon looked at him a little fearful of the massive Pokemon, but seeing the excited smile on Ash's face reassured both of them that they were not in as much danger as they believed.

The other Pokemon had Dawn's attention though, she'd already seen a Torterra and heard about them being a Sinnoh native, after all, but she lifted her pink Pokedex and scanned the Magmar for it's information. "Magmar, the Spitfire Pokémon. Its body is like a furnace, making Magmar a living inferno. It has been discovered only near active volcanoes." The Pokedex explained in an almost robotic female voice.

Dawn whistled lowly, "Color me impressed, a living inferno? It's got to pack quite a bit of fire power if that's how they're described and a guy like Paul would only settle for the best one he could find." She muttered to herself, although she was still confident Ash was going to win.

Magmar was a tailed, bipedal Pokémon with a red body that had a yellow flame design on it. It had a yellow tail that had a flame on the tip. Magmar had yellow thighs, and red feet with two toes each. It's arms were covered in red, rigid scales and it had red hands with five fingers. It had black, metal shackles on its neck and legs as well as a row of red spikes running down its back, two lumps on its forehead with a flame on top of each one and a yellow beak.

Ash stretched his neck slightly as his mind began to enter 'Battle Mode', it was something that had happened to him for as long as he could remember; his mind just focused in on almost every minute detail during a battle, as if while he was battling he could almost see the tide of the battle itself, it was the only reason for his success during his younger years when he – he admitted ruefully to himself – was a complete and utter moron.

He'd actually found out the reason for it from an unlikely source, his meeting with Lucario left him with some rather good memories, so much so that he hoped to one day have his very own Lucario just like the one he knew that sacrificed himself to save him his friends and the tree of beginning.

Lucario had told him that he was one of the rare few that had a strong aura and had the ability to harness the power from inside himself – Lucario had also told him he had an unnaturally strong aura just like sir Aaron – Aura was first and foremost attuned to combat and protecting the user, so sub-consciously Ash had been using his Aura to focus his mind on battling and helping him spot out minute details in the area for as long as he'd been a Trainer.

He didn't really need it all that much anymore, he'd been using it so long that the effect was almost second nature to him even without using his aura, but he'd been told by Brock a few times that his eyes sometimes seemed to shine a clear silvery blue when he battled, he didn't find out until his talk with Lucario though that Brock had meant it literally.

Ash grinned, "Well, Paul I'll be a gentleman here and allow you the first move." He said, almost mockingly.

Paul growled, the tips of his ears turning red as he finally snapped in anger, "Magmar Flamethrower! Torterra Stone Edge now! Show these weaklings our power!" The purple haired Trainer almost literally roared.

Magmar opened it's beak and unleashed a searing torrent of orange-yellow flames that spread across the clearing towards Turtwig and Chimchar as Torterra stomped on the ground, giving a loud growl as rocks broke apart from the ground and glowed a deep white before speeding across towards Ash's Pokemon beside the Flamethrower from Magmar.

Ash grinned as he flicked a lock of hair from the side of his face, "Chimchar Dig! Turtwig follow him under." He ordered, his voice eerily calm.

Chimchar gave a cry of, "Char!" In understanding before the fire chimp launching a few feet from the ground and dived straight down, creating a hole through the ground as he dug through, Turtwig jumping in and following barely a second later.

Both powerful fire and rock type attacks sped over the hole, missing completely and passing harmlessly into the forest where a small explosion was heard when they impacted something.

Paul growled at the dodging tactic, "Torterra show them they can't run, use Earthquake!" He ordered harshly.

Ash didn't lose his grin though as he countered, "Chimchar come up now and straight into the air, Turtwig you too!" He called out.

As Torterra lifted it's powerful legs up and slammed them down harshly on the ground, creating an earthquake through the clearing, Chimchar and Turtwig burst from the ground halfway to towards both of Paul's Pokemon, and soared out of the hole a few feet above the ground, completely avoiding the earthquake as they hung in mid-air for a few moments thanks to their jump.

The same couldn't be said for Magmar though, who was forced to the ground receiving quite a bit of damage from the extremely powerful Ground Type attack, with the power behind the attack thanks to how strong Torterra was, and with how weak a fire type like Magmar was to a Ground Type attack like Earthquake, it was easy to tell Paul's Fire Type had taken quite a bit of damage. Luckily for the angry purplette, the Fire Type was able to shakily pull itself to it's feet.

"Pathetic! How could you not dodge that?" He growled angrily at his Pokemon.

Ash interrupted him however, "It isn't Magmars fault you're too blind to notice these kinda things, it's just because you aren't as good a Trainer as you thought you were." Ash shouted over at him, his tone once again almost mocking, "And guess what?" He asked.

Paul growled audibly, "What?" He demanded harshly.

Ash grinned cheekily, "You left yourself wide open! Chimchar, Flame Wheel on Torterra now!" He called out.

Chimchar obeyed and in an instant had jumped and rolled himself into a massive flaming wheel and roared across the clearing, reaching Torterra in seconds.

Paul's eyes widened and he focused on protecting Torterra from damage, "Torterra, Hyper Beam!" He called out quickly, a hint of desperation in his voice.

Ash grinned, "Perfect, Chimchar bounce over it and come down on top of Torterra!" Ash called out before shifting his attention elsewhere, "Turtwig now!" He ordered calmly.

Torterra opened it's mouth and launched a devastating orange beam of power straight at the flaming wheel that was Chimchar, but as the beam was about to make contact, the flaming wheel hopped up once and then bounced from the forest floor straight into the air, coming down hard on top of Torterra's back, who roared in agony from the Super Effective attack, unable to counter thanks to having to recharge from using Hyper Beam.

But what surprised Paul even more was when Chimchar, still in flaming wheel form, jumped from behind it in his wake revealing Turtwig speeding across the battlefield, a golden glow rocketing from behind it and making the small shelled Grass Type all the faster.

"No! Magmar move!" He called out desperately when he saw Turtwig's target, but it was all in vain; the living inferno Pokemon was still trying to maintain it's balance on shaky legs from the damage it received from Torterra's Earthquake attack, something that even he couldn't fault the Pokemon for, he'd seen many Pokemon that were not weak to the attack fail to stand up after one blow from Torterra and even he knew he was being irrational when she asked Magmar to dodge when he'd given his Pokemon no prior warning, something that was his job as a Trainer

"Mar!" Magmar cried out as Turtwig impacted savagely against it's stomach and launched it soaring across the clearing, smashing against a tree and literally almost bending it's back around the large piece of bark, causing Paul to wince as it almost looked like it's spine was ready to snap.

And just like that Magmar fell to the ground unmoving and unable to continue.

Paul sighed slightly, he was caught between a rock and a hard place and he knew that, looking between his Pokemon, Magmar who was injured all over and unable to continue and Torterra who was being repeatedly burned over by Chimchar's powerful flames with Turtwig running over to without a doubt add even more pain to his starter Pokemon's already harsh plight.

Despite his harsh attitude, Paul did care about his Pokemon, the weak ones wouldn't survive his Trainer and thus he let them go, but even he had to admit he cared about his Pokemon even if it was only the strong ones who proved themselves to him by surviving his training.

And right now, seeing his starter take on such excruciating pain – confirmed by Torterra's agonising screams and roars – and still not backing down because of the pact they made together before they even started their journey, it touched him a bit-not like he'd ever admit it, but he reacted to the stimuli nonetheless.

Sighing in defeat he lifted his Pokeballs and returned Magmar in a beam of red light before calling over to Ash, "Cut it out, I give up okay!" He shouted, his tone solemn and defeated as he conceded his loss once again to the same Trainer who had now beaten him easily twice, for a reason he didn't know. He'd never been schooled this easily in battles before, the answer was lurking just out of reach and he knew it.

Ash grinned, "All right Chimchar cut the power, both you and Turtwig win so go and enjoy the rest of your breakfast." He called out to both his battling Pokemon.

Chimchar cut the power to his Flame Wheel and jumped off of Torterra's back as Turtwig came to a stop beside the large continent Pokemon, both Pokemon eye smiling at each other and cheering as they rushed over to join the rest of Ash and Dawn's Pokemon eating breakfast, to receive an almost standing ovations in cheers from the other Pokemon, obviously congratulating and praising them.

Ash watched as Paul returned Torterra and turned to walk away, his shoulders and posture slumped in defeat, he looked rather pitiable really and so he decided to be the nice guy people usually said he was and give him a point in the right direction.

"It has nothing to do with your Pokemon, they were both really powerful you know." Ash called out to his retreating figure.

Paul stopped but did not turn around to acknowledge Ash's comment, "The problem is you. Battling is 50-50 between the Trainer and Pokemon, if you can't keep your head in a battle and let anger cloud your judgement, then how can you expect your Pokemon to battle without clear instructions or orders and come out winning?" The honorary Pokemon Ranger concluded, with that he turned and walked away back towards the table with Dawn to enjoy his breakfast.

Paul starting walking again, a small smirk coming across his face, "50-50 huh? For someone so carefree that is quite a good bit of advice..." He muttered to himself admiringly, if grudgingly at that, he had training to do.

Ash grinned his own grin to meet Dawn's bright smile when he sat down and began eating his breakfast again, "So, what did you think?" He asked.

Ash could have sworn stars appeared in Dawn's eyes, "That was awesome Ash, just the sheer size and power of those Pokemon actually had me questioning your judgement on using two new Pokemon like that to battle them but you dominated that battle so easily." She gushed excitedly.

Ash laughed, "Larger Pokemon are more often than not slower than smaller ones and have a hard time hitting them, and it can be rather easy to exploit that weakness, especially with how Paul used his Pokemon just like I expected him to, going with large and powerful flashy moves like Hyper Beam, all I had to do was get under his skin with a few insults and the battle was easy." He explained, "Like Drake of the Elite Four told me when he schooled me in a battle almost 2 years ago, flashy attacks like that with no finesse are no match for my experience." He told her sagely.

Dawn laughed at the comment, "It sounds so arrogant, but it also sounds so like you, from every battle I've saw you in since I've met you, you haven't used one largely power draining attack like Hyper Beam or Hydro Pump unless it was for a finisher." She commented.

"You think?" Ash asked.

Dawn nodded, "Definitely." She replied.

"Well then, how about I teach you how to deal with flashy and powerful attacks like that then, and how to use your opponents size to your advantage next when your Pokemon are working on mastering their attacks?" Ash asked.

Dawn smiled in response, it made her heart beat faster from the almost heart warming comment, he could be out travelling a lot faster and getting a lot more training in with his Pokemon to make sure he won the next League he competed in, but instead he took time out of his busy day to help and teach her.

There was just something about Ash that drew her in, it wasn't just his good looks or his kindness alone, it was the full package and everything it came with.

She enjoyed all the touching they did when they were close, holding hands, leaning on his shoulder, him carrying her on his back and the few hugs that they'd affectionately shared.

The way his smile caused her face to blush beet red and his voice made her heart thunder beneath her breast.

Dawn could say without a doubt she had a large crush on Ash Ketchum and for the life of her she couldn't care less, she just enjoyed being near him so damn much.

It didn't help that he was so dependable and strong, where as her male friends before she started her journey left a lot to be desired, like Kenny; skinny wimpy and annoying Kenny, he had nothing on Ash.

A few hours later, both Ash and Dawn were walking through the Bewilder Forest, a forest reputed for it's large population of Stantler that enjoyed pranking travellers by hypnotising them with their horns.

Thankfully, the Stantler in the wide were pretty weak Pokemon by nature, so having Pikachu walk beside them and spark his cheeks threateningly if any Stantler neared scared them off, sending them running back into the forest foliage before any issues could come up.

Ash's hand gripped Dawn's smaller more dainty and feminine hand lightly as he lead her through the forest, he would rather not be stuck in a forest like the Bewilder Forest for long, but for the most part he was just using it as an excuse to hold Dawn's hand in his own, it was something that never really fazed him before with other girls he knew, but just touching Dawn and being close to her made him feel tingly and pleasant all over.

"So, a move like Rollout can be used it a variety of ways, for offence, defense an even gaining speed, it's a prime move to teach a heavy Pokemon like Golem, but then there are ways to counter it such as freezing the ground over, digging trenches or holes in the area to slow it's momentum or you could ev-" Ash was cut off from his explanation of the mechanics behind the Rock Type Pokemon attack by a loud guttural roar from a few metres in front of them as a large Ursaring burst from the foliage of the forest.

Ursaring was a large brown bipedal grizzly bear like Pokemon with a large yellow circle image over it's brown fur, right in the middle of it's stomach.

The Ursaring growled at them threateningly and rushed at them, it's arm cocked back and glowing white with power – a Hammer Arm attack Ash noted – causing Dawn to flinch back in fear, having not dealt with this kind of situation before like Ash had, her pink boot covered foot stumbling over a small rock behind her and causing her to tug her hand out of Ash's and tumble to the grass covered ground.

"Pikachu deal with it." Ash ordered, not even bothering to watch as Pikachu launched forward in a powerful Volt Tackle and sent the large bear Pokemon soaring a few metres away. Ash was too busy turning to help Dawn, but when he turned his mind went blank at the sight before him.

Dawn had turned when she tried to flee and toppled over, ending up face first in the ground, but that wasn't what caught his attention. No, what caught his attention was the fact that her deliciously round rear end was raised in the air, her tiny pink skirt having ridden up to her waist, showing that her luscious ass was framed perfectly by a pair of black lace panties.

Ash could already feel the small amount of blood running from his nostril, "Is that... Black lace?" He said to himself quietly.

Not quietly enough though, as Dawn heard him and sprung to her feet with an embarrassed, "Kyah!" A furious blush on her face and a crazed look in her eye as she pulled all three of her filled Pokeballs out, completely ignoring Ash for the moment as she stomped over between Pikachu, who was perfectly fine, and the Ursaring, which was standing on shaky legs from the beating Pikachu had been giving it.

"You stupid overgrown stuffed teddy!" She roared as he launched her Pokeballs into the air and releasing all three of her Pokemon, "Piplup Bubble-Beam! Aipom Swift! Buneary Ice Beam!" She roared angrily.

Ash backed away a few steps, slightly scared what she'd do to him if she caught him in her line of sight.

Ursaring only had time for it's eyes to widen in fear before all three attacks engulfed it in a large explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Ursaring was face down on the ground completely unconscious and covered in bruises and singe marks.

Dawn breathed heavily as returned her three Pokemon, her rage leaving her and mortification quickly covering her face.

Ash discreetly wiped the blood that had run from his nose as he stepped up beside her, allowing Pikachu to discreetly sneak back inside his backpack, "You know, you should catch it, Ursaring are generally pretty powerful Pokemon. Don't let it's show against Pikachu discourage you, Pikachu's a veteran battler." He stated casually.

Dawn, seeing how casual and nonchalant Ash was being, quickly forgot about her previous anger when his words finally filtered through her brain and a giddy smile came over her face, "Right!" She cheered as she pulled out a Pokeball from her bag and launched it, "Go Pokeball!" She shouted as the Pokeball hit home on Ursaring and absorbed the Pokemon inside in a beam of red energy, shaking three times quickly before giving a soft 'ding' and calming down as Ursaring was captured.

As Dawn excitedly ran up to her new Pokemon's Pokeball and picked it up, Ash walked up behind her so she could hear his next comment without him shouting, "You should check it's moves out in your Pokedex to see what it knows." He said.

Dawn excitedly pulled her pink Pokedex out and held it up to her new Pokemon's Pokeball before hitting the scan button, "Ursaring, the Hibernator Pokémon. An excellent tree climber, it snaps trees with its front legs, and eat the fallen fruit. This Ursaring is Male and has the Ability Guts. Currently, this Ursaring knows the attacks; Hyper Beam, Hammer Arm, Focus Blast, Bulk Up and Slash." The female monotone voice of Dawn's pink Pokedex commented.

Ash whistled, impressed. "Wow, that's a pretty damn high level Ursaring, you have a Pokemon that tough and you're only four days into your journey, that should definitely be a confidence booster." Ash stated.

Dawn nodded eagerly before a melancholy smile came over her face, "Yea but I used three Pokemon to beat it and that was after your Pikachu gave it a beating as well, isn't that kind of... cheating...?" She inquired uncertainly.

Ash snorted in amusement, "For wild Pokemon there's no rules when it comes to battling. You didn't use any under handed tactics, only a team strategy to defeat Ursaring, so yeah he's yours fair and square." Ash replied, soothing her worries.

That was all it took before Dawn grabbed Ash by the shoulders and drew him into a tight hug, "Oh Arceus I can't believe I caught such a strong looking Pokemon, I feel so exhilarated right now! Like I could take on Cynthia and win!" She chattered excitedly before pulling from Ash's embrace and dragging him into a giddy dance around the clearing.

Ash laughed and let himself be pulled along, the contact with Dawn made him enjoy it all the more, although his mind was near enough warring with itself because of all his thoughts raging and focusing on the image of Dawn's sexy round ass only covered by a pair of skimpy black lace panties, one of the sexiest things he'd ever seen in his entire life.

* * *

Later that evening as Dawn slept, a rather sad aura about her sleeping person he noted, Ash grabbed Ursaring's Pokeball and with Pikachu on his shoulder, wearing nothing but a pair of blue shorts and a tight white muscle shirt – his bed wear – Ash ventured deeper into the forest beside where he and Dawn had set up their tents and camp for the night.

Ursaring, when he'd been allowed out of the Pokeball, had done something Ash was afraid was going to happen, what with Dawn being a new trainer and all and Ursaring being an experienced and powerful Pokemon, who was fully evolved at that.

Ursaring had refused to follow any of Dawn's orders, choosing to ignore every command she gave and refused to accept her has his Trainer.

Ash wasn't going to allow that to continue, not to someone he cared so much about, and not after the events with Charizard.

While he didn't really like to admit it in fear of sounding like the old arrogant Gary, the indigo league - when he'd competed in it at least - was full of useless and weak Trainers, even Richie was rather weak, Ash had only been forced to use Charizard because his other Pokemon had been injured in a plot by Team Rocket at the time.

Ash was 90% certain that if Charizard had listened to him, he would have dominated the League and went on to win the whole shebang.

He wasn't about to let Ursaring continue with it's arrogant behaviour and cause the same or similar problems for Dawn.

It was time to show Ursaring that just because he was strong didn't mean he anywhere close to being the Alpha Pokemon among the travelling party. Every single one of Ash's Pokemon could take it on and win easily against it's berserker style of battling. It had power, but what use was power without control or finesse?

He released Ursaring from it's ball, not even giving the large bear Pokemon time to react before he gave Pikachu an order, "Iron Tail." He commanded, his eyes almost dead looking and his voice incredibly cold.

Before Ursaring could even blink he was smacked in the face harshly by Pikachu's extremely powerful Iron Tail attack, sending it tumbling to the ground with a loud cry of pain.

"I don't want you jeopardizing Dawn's chances in the Jubilife Contest, and unfortunately there isn't enough time for her to ease you out of that attitude with her friendship and love for you, so we're gonna have to beat the arrogance out of you and beat a heavy dose of humility into you." Ash stated coldly, "Thunder-Bolt." He commanded a second later

A split second later, no mercy at all from Pikachu, before Ursaring had even stood up, he was engulfed in a large electrical aura of power, electrocuting him severely and even burning him in a variety of different ways, smoke rising steadily from the powerful Normal Type's body.

It would be two hours later when Ash finally finished treating Ursaring from the many wound given to it by Pikachu before he returned the Pokeball back to Dawn's pack as he and Pikachu tiredly slouched into their own tent, exhausted.

They never saw Dawn poke her head into the tent a few minutes later smiling softly at Ash as she listened to him snore away in a deep sleep already, "I guess I can always count on you to look out for me Ash, you were never even going to tell me were you?" She commented.

Tiptoeing in softly, careful to not wake either sleeping Pokemon or trainer, Dawn bent down and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead before standing back up and looking at him once more before she turned to leave, "I don't even really care that you saw me near enough naked from the waist down, I'm just glad you obviously liked what you saw." She said to his sleeping form, an embarrassed but pleased blush on her face as she left the tent.

She never saw Pikachu's eyes open slightly as he gave a lazy grin, "Like I said, my boy Ash is a chick magnet..." He boasted tiredly as he fist pumped with his small yellow paw before closing his eyes and settling down to go back to sleep.

* * *

 **Omake**

 **Written by: Slicerness**

 **Idea by: 0 Jordinio 0**

Dawn awoke to find Ash already awake and cooking breakfast. She gratefully took her share and inhaled it. She normally would have been more lady-like in front of Ash, but she was starving from the... vivid dreams she'd had last night. Now that she thought about it, she should probably have changed out of her sleep clothes. Ash may not be able to smell the leftover from her dreams, but she could swear she saw Pikachu smirk and pump his little paw when he thought she wasn't looking.

Shaking that odd occurrence off, she grabbed her thr-four Pokeballs now, she caught herself with a giddy smile, and released her team. She tried not to wince at Ursaring's two black eyes and the way he was gingerly putting weight on his right leg, but her concern for her Pokemon was overshadowed by her joy as she ordered it to show her how well he could use the attacks he knew and he actually did as she said!

Sure there was a little hesitation there, and she thought she saw his eyes flicker behind her and widen in barely disguised terror, but still!

Behind the blue haired girl Pikachu stopped the golden aura of power that he'd conjured up, identical to the one that covered him when he used Volt Tackle, and leaned back against the stump he was sitting on once he was sure the bear Pokemon was properly cowed. The cute little yellow mouse didn't get a whole lot of opportunities to play the intimidation card, and he was enjoying milking the situation for all it was worth.

But now he had bigger concerns; the fucking ketchup bottle wouldn't open!

' _Taste Iron Tail bitch_!' Pikachu roared in his mind gleefully as he swung his glowing tail towards the cap of the ketchup bottle.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

It took another three days of travelling and training before Ash and Dawn finally arrived in Jubilife city, two days before the annual Jubilife contest was set to take place.

"I'm thinking of switching out some of my older Pokemon for some others when we reach the Pokemon Centre." Ash commented as they walked along one of the busy city roads.

Dawn turned towards him curiously, taking a break from her vivid search for a shop that sold Poketch's, "You haven't really told me much about your other Pokemon except Butterfree and Charizard." She commented thoughtfully, "What ones are you thinking of bringing over?" She asked.

Ash brought his fist to his chin as he 'hmm'd' in thought, "Well, there's a few Pokemon I left in different places around the regions that I made sure to get back before I came to Sinnoh." He replied, "I'm thinking, I'll send Croconaw and Cyndaquil back to Professor Oak to relax for a little while and have him send Pidgeot, Primeape and Haunter over, three of the Pokemon I caught on my original journey through Kanto."

"You have a Pidgeot?" She asked, her tone taking a rather high pitch.

"Yeah," Ash answered, "I caught him as a Pidgeotto a few days after I started my journey and left him in Viridian Forest to protect a nest of Pidgey and Pidgeotto from a clan of violent Spearow and Fearow. I decided I wanted him back so me and Pikachu headed into the forest and put an end to the flock of Spearow by capturing their leader, the Fearow, but damn is that thing violent! I've only let it out once so far, other than that it's locked up tight back at the lab because of how volatile the thing is." He continued.

Dawn raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Why is the Fearow so violent?" She asked.

Ash gave a sheepish laugh, "Back when I first started my journey, I kind of tried to catch it when it was a Spearow and tried to weaken it by belting it across the head with a rock, suffice to say it's held a grudge against me ever since." He replied.

Dawn gave an amused giggle, "But is it really that strong? I mean you handled my Ursaring easily and you said it was a powerhouse of a Pokemon, so I'd think you'd be able to keep it in line." She stated.

Ash rubbed the back of his head, "Well, the thing you've got to realize is Pidgeot, I trained him for nearly a full year and he was a Pokemon league level Pokemon as a Pidgeotto and Pidgeotto had to evolve to defeat that Fearow in a battle and since then they've been battling each other over territory for 3 years straight as the leaders of their flock. They've been almost constantly training for that long in their rivalry, and while Pikachu is stronger than both of them and has the type advantage, they're both really powerful so Fearow would still be able to cause something or somebody damage and maybe serious injury before he was taken down." Ash explained, somewhat dejectedly.

Dawn nodded her head, indicating she understood and seeing how Ash felt about that particular Fearow, decided to change the topic, "So what about Primeape and Haunter?" She asked.

A smile graced Ash's face, he was grateful for her changing the subject, Fearow was a touchy matter of his that he hadn't addressed yet but would make sure to soon, "Well, both of them are from a type of Pokemon I really had no experience with so I left Primeape to train at a fighting dojo and Haunter I left with the Psychic Gym Leader, Sabrina from Saffron City." Ash replied, "They've both been training for years with some of the best Trainers for their types, so even though I haven't really Trained them all that much myself, they're still powerful and in tip-top shape." He added next.

Dawn's gaze grew distant as she picture how powerful the two Pokemon must be. "Are all of your Pokemon super strong? They just all seem like monsters when it comes to battling compared to other Pokemon I've seen." She asked after a few seconds of daydreaming.

Ash laughed in amusement, "No they're not all super strong." He conceded, "But I made sure that each and every one of them was at least up to the level of battling with Gym Leaders. So I guess while some of them aren't as strong as others, they're no-where near weak." Ash boasted.

Dawn giggled at his boasting, "So what about your Pidgeot? Can you tell me more about him? I've heard a lot of Coordinators want one because of how majestic they look." She rapid fire questioned.

Tilting his head Ash replied, "Well, yeah I'd have to say Pidgeot is a really cool looking Pokemon, and an even more amazing battler, even now I have very few Pokemon who could keep up with his speed back then and at the present he's way faster than he was back then." He said.

Dawn opened her mouth and was about to say something else, when someone calling loudly above the crowd from a stand down the street caught her attention.

"The new Poketch watches! Freshly out today! Come one come all get your Poketch today!" The rotund brown haired man in a grey tailored suit hollared over the loud busy street.

Dawn squealed happily and literally glomped Ash's arm as she began dragging him down the street towards the Poketch stand, "Come on Ash! I need to get a Poketch, I've been wanting one for ages! They're a must have for any Coordinator these days." She chattered as he dragged him down the street.

Ash brushed the hair that had fallen in front of his eyes out of the way and gave an amused laugh, "Okay Dawn we'll each get one then." He stated amusedly through his laughter.

Dawn turned and pouted cutely at him, "Don't laugh at me..." She mock glared, "I've been wanting one of these for over a year but my Mom wouldn't let me until I was a Trainer and now I can finally get one!" She finished with an excited squee.

Ash waved her off, amusement dancing clear in his eyes, "Alright, then let's go get some before they're all sold out then, eh?" He questioned.

Dawn nodded eagerly and began dragging him towards the Poketch stand faster.

Two hours later, Ash and Dawn entered the Pokemon Center the proud owners of a black and pink Poketch, respectively.

Ash unclipped the Pokeballs for his newest captures in Sinnoh and Larvitar's Pokeball and handed them to Dawn, "Do you mind getting Nurse Joy to give them a check up while I go call Professor Oak?" He asked.

Dawn shook her head, "Sure, I don't mind, you go switch your Pokemon over." She told him as she accepted his Pokeballs and made her way to the front desk.

Ash watched her go for a few moments, more specifically the sway of her hips, before turning and heading down the corridor of the Pokemon Center where he knew that the video phones and transporters would be located.

When he reached it he sat down on the cushioned seat and dialled the number for the Oak Ranch.

Seconds later as he held the phone up to his face, Professor Oak appeared on the screen, "Why hello Ash, what can I do for you my boy?" He asked jovially

Ash smiled at seeing the old professor, "Hey Professor Oak, I was hoping to send over Cyndaquil and Croconaw over to you and in return get Pidgeot, Primeape and Haunter." The young Ranger replied.

Professor Oak gave him a large smile, "Of course Of course my boy." He said and turned to go gather the three Pokemon Ash had asked for, when the Trainer's voice stopped him. The researcher turned to see Ash with a surprisingly thoughtful frown on his face.

"Hey, Professor Oak?" Ash called.

"Yes?" The old researched replied.

"Could you get Fearow as well, I'm thinking it's high time I dealt with his attitude." Ash decided, completely serious.

Professor Oak nodded in reply and turned to go collect the Pokeballs of the four Pokemon.

Five minutes later, Ash was heading towards the front desk to meet up with Dawn, both Pokeballs for Croconaw and Cyndaquil being replaced by four different ones.

Surprisingly when he got to the front desk Dawn was already sitting on the couch beside it waiting for him, Pikachu beside her, with all her own and his Pokeballs on her.

Ash raised an eyebrow, "Is there a reason you didn't give them to Nurse Joy?" He asked curiously.

Dawn gave him an amused smile, "Well she used a machine to check their vitals while in the Pokeball's and she said they're all in tip top shape, a little tired at most but nothing a good night's rest wont fix, she was rather impressed with how healthy they were." She replied.

Ash laughed softly, "Well the credit should really go to my friend Brock, everything I know about taking care of Pokemon I learned most of it from him, in my own opinion he's a world class Breeder, one of the best travelling companions a guy could ask for." Ash told her.

Dawn smiled at his fond expression and handed him his Pokeballs as she stood up and stretched lightly. Pikachu jumping onto his favourite perch on Ash's shoulder before she even stood to prevent being hit as she swung her arms. "So what now?" She asked curiously.

Ash met her gaze and gave an easy smile, "Why don't you go get us a room for the next few days or so from Nurse Joy. I have something I need to take care of; it shouldn't take more than an hour or two." The black haired teen replied. He didn't mean to be evasive, but that's the way it came out.

"Okay." Dawn chirped, she couldn't deny she was curious about what he was going to do, but trusted him enough to let him do what he wanted. She'd seen him glancing discreetly at a Pokeball clenched tightly in his hand and assumed whatever he was going to do involved whatever Pokemon was inside that 'Ball. She decided she'd just do as Ash suggested. She knew he could keep himself safe, and she trusted him enough to let him tell her, instead of prying about it.

Ash watched her go for a moment before turning his attention to the Pokeball gripped tightly in his hand, a frown on his face. He stared at it for a few more moments before turning on his heel and walking out of the Pokemon Center.

* * *

Ash stood with his arms crossed in one of the empty battlefields behind the Pokemon Center, Pikachu on his shoulder, both with completely serious looks on their faces.

Unwinding his arm slightly, Ash allowed the Pokeball in his hand to release the Pokemon inside straight into the air in a flash of light.

Above them, a large Fearow with a murderous glare materialized flapping it's wings harshly. Fearow was a large, mostly brown bird Pokémon with a vulturine neck and broad, powerful wings. It had a long, pointed beak that was pink in coloration, and had a decorative red coxcomb atop its head. Its intense-looking eyes had very small pupils, and did not appear to have colored irises. It had shaggy feathers on the base of its neck and in a vaguely cape-like pattern covering the upper portion of its wings. The cape itself was cream in color, as were the tips of its flight feathers. Its sharp-clawed talons were pink, with three toes pointing forward and one pointing backward.

"Row!" It screeched angrily.

Ash had already planned on what course of action to take for this moment though, "Shut up!" He barked angrily.

Surprising the flying Pokemon as it blinked in shock, because even it had never seen Ash ever get angry at his Pokemon, "I can understand why Charizard refused to listen to me years ago, he was powerful and I was an arrogant inexperienced idiot who thought whining at his Pokemon was how to do things, but you on the other hand, I'm more than strong enough to be your Trainer, all I did was hit you with a small rock, get over it!" Ash bit, his tone full of anger.

"Fearow!" Fearow cawed in anger taking flight rapidly towards Ash, preparing to skewer him on it's beak as it spun into a rapid Drill Peck attack.

Ash didn't even bat an eyelash though as Pikachu literally looked like he teleported up in front of Fearow from the insane speed of his Extreme-Speed attack and batting the large bird Pokemon out of it's spin and flying across the clearing, where it crashed harshly with the unforgiving ground.

It took some damage and was a bit dazed, but pulled itself up to its taloned feet and took flight again within seconds and began circling ahead over Ash and Pikachu who had returned to his position on his Trainers shoulder, looking for a point to strike.

Ash grit his teeth angrily, "Fine then! If you won't accept a loss because Pikachu has the advantage over you, how about I use a Pokemon at a disadvantage against you and beat you down again?" He angrily retorted to Fearow's loud rage filled caws.

Slipping his hand down to his belt, Ash unclipped one of the ones he received from Professor Oak and released the Pokemon inside in a beam of light.

Primeape appeared a few feet in front of him, pounding his gloves together in preparation for a battle.

Fearow seemed to take offense to being 'underestimated' because Ash sent out a 'lowly' Fighting Type to fight against it and opened it's mouth in a rage, powering up and firing a massive orange beam of energy down towards Primeape.

"Tch, Sloppy." Ash muttered, "Primeape dodge to the left and then Thunderbolt." Ash ordered calmly.

When the Hyper Beam attack was almost upon the pig monkey Pokemon Primeape dodged to the side about a metre away gracefully, ignoring the explosion caused by the powerful Normal Type attack and the relatively large crater formed at the point of impact, his white furred body becoming enshrouded in a thick coat of electricity before he launched the powerful Thunderbolt straight into the sky to the completely defenseless Fearow who was still recovering from using a draw back technique like Hyper Beam.

The attack washed over Fearow, who screeched in agony from the powerful Super Effective attack, his charred body falling from the sky in a spinning nose dive.

"Finish it." Ash declared grimly, "Meet Fearow at his landing and use Ice Punch."

Primeape grunted in understanding, "Ape ape ape!"

With that, the gloved Fighting Type sprinted rapidly towards the descending Fearow, reaching the large Flying Type Pokemon when it was but a few feet from the ground and smashed his icy blue glowing fist straight into Fearow's chest, covering it in a thick tomb of ice and letting it drop to the ground.

Grunting, Primeape turned and began walking back towards Ash who was watching with a thoughtful frown. Ash really hated having to put his Pokemon through such treatment, but Fearow was a danger to others and it was his responsibility as his Trainer - not to mention the one who caused this mess in the first place - to fix it.

Ash raised his eyebrows in surprise as the ice tomb suddenly shattered and scattered everywhere as Fearow flew straight out of it, covered in injuries screeching angrily.

Fearow streaked across the field, it's body a blur, towards Primeape, becoming surrounded by orange streaks. A purple energy dome appearing from the top of the streaks and enveloping Fearow's large bird-like body.

Ash smirked, "I've got to admit I'm impressed, taking an Extreme-Speed powered Iron Tail from Pikachu, a Thunderbolt from Primeape and then an Ice Punch as well and still be raring to go?" Ash stated, before his smirk widened slightly, "But I'm ending this charade here and now, you're strong no doubt, but without my training that's all you are, you have no skill or finesse and fight like a berserker, what good is your power when your opponent is just as strong, more skilled and has a trainer like me prepared to issue a strategy to counter you at every turn?" Ash asked rhetorically

"Primeape use your own Giga Impact." He said calmly.

Primeape obeyed and sprinted towards the approaching Fearow, his own body becoming enveloped by the purple dome and orange streaks of energy. Both Pokemon using their strongest physical attacks clashed in the middle of the battlefield, both trying to steadily overpower the other for a good few moments. Until, that is Fearow flinched back from pain it had received from it's other injuries and Primeape took the opportunity and overpowered the Flying Type.

Primeape broke through Fearow's own Giga impact and smashed straight into the bird Pokemon, Fearow gave a loud cry of pain as he was sent careening across the field, crashing into the ground and remained there, unmoving, a good thirty feet away.

Ash frowned at the completely still heap that was Fearow before lifting Primeape's Pokeball and returning the pig snout fighter in a beam of red energy.

He clipped the Pokeball back onto his belt and walked steadily and calmly walked over to Fearow, who was struggling to move now, Pikachu jumping off from his shoulder to give them privacy, Pokemon to Trainer, but stayed close enough to intervene if Fearow tried to pull another crazy stunt despite his injuries.

Fearow glared at him through a swollen eye as he sat down beside it, "You know it didn't have to come to this, wouldn't you much rather just get along with me?" Ash asked dejectedly.

Fearow squawked indignantly and Ash had a sort of epiphany, as if everything just became clear to him and he smirked at Fearow, "So it's pride is it? Did I damage your pride?" Ash asked amusedly.

Fearow pushed himself up on his wings and snapped his beak at Ash angrily, only for Ash to laugh and bat his weakened form back down to the ground. "So you're proud eh? You want to be the strongest right?" Ash asked.

Fearow cawed from his position under Ash's hand and the Trainer grinned, "Then buckle down and respect me, agree to be my Pokemon and I'll make you the strongest Fearow in the world without a doubt!" He declared passionately.

Fearow squawked again but relented and lowered it's head to his Trainer, one of the few submissive gesture's Fearow would ever give, even if only to Ash.

Ash grinned happily, "Well great, now let's go get you healed up."He stated as he lifted Fearow's Pokeball and returned the large bird Pokemon in a beam of red energy before clipping the Pokeball to his silver belt.

Standing up, Ash grinned at Pikachu who just landed on his shoulder, "Well buddy, that's that." He stated merrily.

Pikachu held his gaze for a moment, before the two best friends for four years burst out in peals of laughter as Ash headed back towards the Pokemon Center, Pikachu getting comfy on his shoulder all the while.

* * *

Later that evening after Ash had returned to his and Dawn's room, the bluenette in question was watching all of Ash's recorded battles on the HD television provided in the room, connected to the computer via HDMI cable.

Ash himself was taking a shower, not having done so since he left the boat that brought him to the Sinnoh region. Steams and creaks were decent enough for taking a bath, but a warm shower made loads of difference in making one actually feel clean.

As he was doing this Dawn's attention was rapt by the battle between Ash and his former rival 'Gary Oak', and she had to say she was deeply impressed. Both Ash and Gary were commanding their Pokemon to battle in ways she could only dream of, but what held her attention most was when Ash was down to one Pokemon left and Gary had three, yet his incredible Charizard sweeped every single one of them and still looked raring to go, Nidoqueen, Golem and Blastoise, Charizard just mowed them all down.

The strategy Ash used to defeat Gary's incredible powerful Blastoise was ingenious, she had no idea a Trainer could even utilize a battlefield like that, "I thought I'd learned a lot from Ash, but i've just scratched the surface of what he could teach me!" Dawn lamented to herself.

Shaking her head, Dawn turned to the computer and pulled up another one of his League Battles, this time from the Hoenn Region, against a trainer named Tyson.

The battle had just begun, Ash sending out his powerful Glalie against Tyson's very own Starter Pokemon, his fully evolved form of Treecko, Sceptile, when she heard the sound of the bathroom door opening she turned to greet Ash only for her mouth to hang a gape and a red hue to spread across her cheeks.

Out of the bathroom, Ash came with nothing but a pair of blue and black trimmed shorts on, his muscled torso from years of exercise and travelling exposed to Dawn's blue eyes as he ran a towel through his wet and messy blackish-blue hair.

"Hey Dawn have you seen my backpack?" He asked without turning to look at her, still trying to dry messy locks with his cream coloured towel.

Dawn licked her lips as he watched a drop of water trail down his neck, over his broad chest and straight down over his toned six-pack abs. It took her a moment before she finally registered what he said, "Err... ummm... It's... It's over by the window, beside your bed... I think." She stammered out, her face nearly flaming red. Thankfully Ash didn't seem to notice.

Ash didn't even bother turning to her as he gave her a quick 'thank you', and wandered over to his bed, pulling the large backpack that was beside it up on top of the bed and began rummaging through it.

Dawn sighed in relief as Ash walked away, breathing deeply to calm her thundering heart, onlt ot notice that while she'd been ogling the battle between Ash and Tyson on the television had still been playing and was already half way over. She groaned in annoyance at allowing herself to be distracted when she was 'researching', even if Ash without a shirt on and dripping wet was the hottest thing she'd ever seen.

She was broken from her musings, as Ash, who'd finished drying his hair and putting a white muscle shirt on, spoke up from behind her as he tugged on his silver belt, "Hey Dawn, I'm gonna go get a quick Training session in with my Pokemon, I'll be back in about an hour or two. If you you're going to be watching the rest of those feel free to ask any questions you have once I get back." He told her from behind.

"Right..." Dawn squeaked out, not turning to face him because she didn't want him to see her flaming blush, still covering her face as her imagination wouldn't stop flashing an image of Ash shirtless and wet every time she tried to concentrate.

Ash raised an eyebrow at her tone of voice but shook his head and left the room, preparing to head back down to the battle field he'd used earlier to cow Fearow's attitude and get in some good Training, the kind of Training Dawn's Pokemon just weren't ready for yet.

When he closed the door behind him, Dawn collapsed breathlessly onto her back on the couch, "Oh Arceus! I'd thought he was good looking before but gosh those muscles! And those abs!" Dawn squealed to herself. She had no idea Ash was so ripped, she'd never seen any boy close to her age with muscles like those, lean and sleek like some kind of predator, like a Persian or even a Lucario instead of the muscle-head types she'd seen on TV who tried to look like Machokes or Machamps.

* * *

A half an hour later Ash stood leaning against the wall outside the Pokemon Center, arms crossed and a small smile on his face as he watched his Pokemon Train.

Pidgeot, who'd been very affectionate upon seeing him again, had agreed instantly with his request and took his newest flying Pokemon Starly up to get a head start on learning one of the stronger Flying-Type moves, Brave Bird. There wasn't much he could teach Starly until the little bird was fully evolved and gained the ability to use Fighting-Type attacks as a Staraptor, so he'd decided to just work on his speed, endurance and after having mastered Aerial Ace rather quickly, he thought it would be a good choice to give Starly a nice power move, and Brave Bird was one of the best he could think of.

He'd get Starly started on Steel Wing straight after Brave Bird; that move was almost on a need-to-know level for Flying-Types because of their weakness to Rock-Types, and Starly would be no use over in Oreburgh City if he didn't teach him a way to damage Rock-Types. From the search he'd done he knew that Rork, the Oreburgh City Gym Leader was a Rock-Type specialist like Brock was way back when.

Pikachu was running through speed drills with Chimchar, helping the small fire chimp build his endurance, speed and dodging ability as he randomly fired small bolts of electricity at Chimchar when he wasn't expecting it.

Chimchar had a good set of moves as is for now, Fighting-Type moves such as Mach Punch and Close Combat were what Ash had in mind, but until Chimchar became a Monferno he wouldn't be ready for those kind of attacks. His current repertoire was perfect for his size for now, although maybe he could teach him some supplementary moves as well, like Sunny Day or Protect.

Haunter was helping Turtwig perfect Energy Ball. Ash had been working on it with Turtwig for the last few days and the little shell covered grass Pokemon had almost got the attack down pat. Haunter was making sure the Grass-Type had fully mastered the attack down to the smallest detail though. His time with Sabrina had made him a perfectionist when it came to learning attacks, apparently.

Fearow was, surprisingly, staying close to Pidgeot and Starly, helping out where he could seeing as he didn't know Brave Bird, but made sure Starly didn't crash when the smallest of his bird Pokemon failed to perform the attack.

Primeape... Well Primeape's chosen method of training made Ash sweatdrop, the pig monkey Fighting-type was currently doing one handed vertical press ups, large and heavy weights strapped to both his forearms and ankles, and to top it off had a large boulder bigger than Ash and thicker than he was tall on each foot.

Damn, Dawn was right, some of his Pokemon were complete monsters!

Larvitar was still hibernating for now, but he'd be finally finished by tomorrow, something Ash couldn't wait for. He'd trained Larvitar a little before coming to Sinnoh and the little green Pokemon was pretty damn strong, with how close he was to evolving now – hibernating being something Larvitar did when they were gathering more power inside themselves to evolve – Ash couldn't wait to see the strength he'd have as a Pupitar.

Looking Away, Ash suddenly smirked as he looked above himself to a seemingly empty ledge, "Are you going to reveal yourself anytime soon? You haven't said much at all since I started this journey. You were much far talkative when I travelled through the Battle Frontier and you finally decided to join me now that your other friends are safe and sound from any unwanted advances." He said to the small wind blowing around him.

He heard a deeply amused and male voice chuckle as a Pokemon fazed into view above him, sitting relaxed on the edge of the ledge, "There is not much you require my services for Ash, the only possible thing you'd need my help for is to battle another Legendary, or maybe one of the Region Champions." Mewtwo replied to him. "Although, knowing your luck none of those two options are far off, you seem to have a knack for meeting Region Champions and Legendary Pokemon alike." The clone Pokemon added.

Mewtwo was a Pokemon a with a humanoid appearance, but had a few distinctive feline features. He was a grayish-purple with a purple underside and a long, purple tail. His finger and toes were less like fingers and more like feelers, ending on a ball rather than a normal finger or toe. He had three finger and three toes, one of his toes on each foot being an opposable toe on the inside of each foot. He had purple eyes that sometimes glowed a deep blue when battling and two short ears atop his head. One of Mewtwo's most notable features was the tube extending from the back of his skull to his spine. Mewtwo had told Ash once that it was a secondary spinal cord, or a system of nerves, allowing for an increased amount of blood and sensory transmission to the brain, heightening his potent psychic powers.

"Well I can't really use you in a normal battle, now can I? It would be kinda over overkill against even most Legendaries." Ash asked with an amused smile, "It took a combination of Pikachu and Charizard to beat you in a mock battle, and considering both of them have defeated Legendaries in one on one battl before and you were only using fifty percent power, that's saying alot about your strength."

Mewtwo chuckled in return, "But isn't it your duty as my Trainer to make me battle?" He asked in return.

Ash shook his head with a rueful smile as he reached under his white muscle- shirt and held up the silver chain adorned around his neck, a unique deep black Pokeball with a purple X over the front attached to the end.

He showed it to Mewtwo with an amused smile on his face, "You hunted me down when you were sure your friends were safe and even brought your own Pokeball for me to capture you in. that sounds more like your keeper rather than your Trainer." Ash replied, "Even If I am your Trainer, I hardly ever keep you in the Pokeball and let you come and go as you please, it's not as if you can't just Teleport to me whenever I need you. You can read my mind from half-way across the world! Hell I worry about the privacy of my thoughts these days." The young Pokemon Ranger added a moment later with a mock shudder.

Mewtwo chuckled again before falling silent, both Trainer and Pokemon enjoying a comfortable silence, only disrupted here and there by the sounds of their teammates training.

Ash broke the silence after a few minutes, "So why are you back? You told me you'd be gone for a while this time because you wanted to meet the other Legendaries." He asked his Pokemon curiously.

Mewtwo's tail twitched slightly as a serious frown came over his face, "I met a few of them, one of them being a rather boastful Lugia who seemed to gloat about you every chance he could get." He replied as his lips twitched when Ash groaned, "But the reason I'm back so soon is because many of the Legendaries are tense, something is happening with some of them in particular, I was only able to gleam that two of the Pokemon involved have the power over space and time, and that there is a group of Rogue Trainers not unlike Team Rocket, Magma and Aqua calling themselves Team Galactic in this region attempting to gain the power of these two Pokemon." The clone of Mew revealed.

Ash sighed mournfully, "Another one... Just once I'd like to have one normal adventure without some 'team' of madmen trying to take over the world." He replied sadly, "So what are your plans now? Are you going to go out and keep an eye on them?" He asked as he looked his strongest Pokemon in the eye.

Mewtwo shook his head in the negative, "No, this is not quite like the incident with Groudon and Kyogre, these two Pokemon have the power over Space and Time meaning if they battled they may actually disrupt the natural order of things and destroy the entire world. You always seem to get involved one way or the other with these kind of things so I'm staying with you to make sure you're safe from harm." Mewtwo replied.

Ash brightened at the answer and sighed gratefully, "Thank Arceus, Pikachu and the rest are strong but I feel much more relieved knowing I have my very own Legendary to help out if things get out of hand." Ash lamented.

Mewtwo chuckled, "Yes, between the power of me and the rest of your Pokemon we should be able to handle anything that gets sent our way, but if you don't mind can you please return me to my Pokeball? It's been a long trip and I would like to rest." Mewtwo replied, his eyes seemingly drooping in exhaustion.

Ash smiled, "Thanks for the hard work Mewtwo, take as much rest as you need." Ash told his Pokemon as he held the chained Pokeball from his neck and returned Mewtwo in a beam of red energy before setting the chain and shrunken Pokeball back around his neck under his shirt.

Ash allowed himself to slide his back down the wall he was leaning against and sliding down to rest on his rear end.

Sighing he looked up towards the night sky, the moon full and bright capturing his attention, "Will we ever just catch a break and have an adventure that doesn't involve mortal danger and lunatics?" He muttered to himself.

He was broken from his musings when he heard Pikachu call for him.

Looking up, Ash was surprised to find all of his Pokemon standing just a few feet away from him slightly scuffed and breathing deeply from their Training, before they swarmed around him getting close, Pikachu taking one shoulder, Starly perching on the other, Pidgeot resting his wavy haired head above his own, Turtwig and Chimchar resting on his stomach and chest respectively. Haunter was floating above his knee's with a silly grin, Primeape was standing gruffly with his eyes puffy with unshed tears to his left and finally Fearow was laying at his feet looking at him intently.

Just like that, Ash lost his melancholy aura and a smile slipped onto his boyish face, "Yeah, what was I worried about, even Legendaries can be beaten in battle and with you guys by my side, there's no way we wont be able to take them down if they come for looking for a battle." He declared as he began laughing deeply.

All eight of his Pokemon outside their balls were roaring and shouting in agreement with him, their spirits boosted, and Ash could even feel Mewtwo's presence at the back of his mind blazing with them in agreement.

Ash stayed in that position with his Pokemon for another half hour, enjoying the close proximity with them. Even Fearow was being civil, seemingly having calmed down quite a bit from his usual angry attitude.

* * *

The next Day Ash and Dawn where walking down the busy streets of Jubilife City again, Pikachu was snoozing away in Ash's large backpack again as they headed towards the Contest Hall to sign up to compete.

Making their way to the front desk, Ash handed his Contest Pass that he'd acquired back in the Hoenn Region to the woman behind the reception desk.

A moment later she handed him a tray that had a few ball capsules for his Pokeballs and an envelope full of seals, a black ribbon case, and lastly his Contest Pass sitting on the tray. "Okay, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town in the Kanto Region; all set up to compete tomorrow in the Jubilife Contest." She told him, "I've also updated your Contest Pass for all Sinnoh Region Contests." The receptionist added.

Ash gave her a bright smile, "Thank you." He replied as he took his new items and moved out of the way to allow Dawn up next.

"Hi, I'm new to contests, can you help me register?" The bluenette asked a bright smile of her own on her pretty face.

The receptionist gave her a small smile in return, "Of course dear, it's great to see a new face. Please place your Pokedex in the slot there." She explained as she pointed to the open slot in front of the desk.

Dawn nodded and took out her Pink Pokedex before slipping it in the slot and began to wait patiently, crossing her arms behind her back.

Ash took this time to slip his newest supplies into his large backpack. He could say without a doubt that he was extremely happy with how small his blue tent and sleeping bag could fold to maximize his storage space.

He decided to check over his berry case – a present from Brock – as he waited for Dawn to finish up registering.

Counting them out he smiled; he had a good amount of berries, mainly Oran Berries though, he was pretty low on Sitrus berries, but they were rather rare and the amount he did have on him would still last for a while as long as he was careful.

The receptionist smiled at Dawn as her face and information appeared on the screen behind the reception desk.

Dawn's Pink Pokdex was ejected and the bluenette grabbed it slipping it into her small bag as she receptionist handed her a tray with the same contents as Ash, not to mention holding her very own contest pass.

"Okay that's you registered, Dawn Berlitz from Twinleaf Town right here in the Sinnoh Region, all set up to compete tomorrow in the Contest, and don't forget your very own Contest Pass for any Contest in the Sinnoh Region." The receptionist told her happily.

Dawn smiled in thanks as she accepted her tray of Contest items and went over to Ash, who smiled in return as she reached him, "Hey Dawn, all set up?" He asked.

"Yup!" She chirped eagerly as she set her own contest items into her own backpack.

"Right, then let's go, we can get some last minute training in for you then." Ash replied as he slipped his hand into her own and gently tugged her alongside him as he left the Jubilife Contest Hall.

Dawn turned to him when they got outside and began heading back towards the Pokemon Center hand in hand, "What Pokemon are you going to use in the Contest tomorrow Ash?" She asked curiously.

Ash turned his head to face her as they walked and gave her a smirk, "I'm going to be using Pidgeot for the appeal round and I'll finally let you see the final Pokemon I have with me tomorrow in the battle rounds." He answered, 'Not including Mewtwo that is.' He added silently.

"What about you?" Ash asked.

Dawn gave a thoughtful 'hmmm' as she struck a thinking pose, "Well, I'm going to be using Piplup in the appeal round since we've finally got that appeal move down and mastered that you helped us developed after Piplup learned Mist, but for the Battle rounds I'm still trying to decide, Aipom loves Contests, Buneary loves to show off how cute she is and Ursaring is without a doubt my strongest Pokemon, it's hard to choose between the three of them." She replied thoughtfully, her mood slightly glum as her mind started making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Ash scratched the back of his head as he tried to think up a solution, "Well..." He trailed of thoughtfully, "I'd suggest not using Ursaring, despite being strong he still needs a lot of work and isn't really trained properly to show off anything other than how powerful he is. With a little work that could be used in and of itself, but we can work on that later." He told her.

Dawn thought on it a moment before she nodded in agreement, "Yeah, you're right Ash, but who should I chose between Buneary and Aipom?" She asked Ash.

Ash shook his head and gave her a grin, "Sorry, no can do Dawn, I enjoy helping you out but I don't want you to rely on me for every little thing, I want you to flourish with what I teach you and soar to the top. I'll give you the tools you need, but if you don't do it yourself it's not you winning." Ash replied teasingly.

Dawn sighed but conceded his point, "Fine..." She mock whined childishly as a cute pout overtook her face.

Ash laughed, "Oh don't pout, your face is much prettier with a smile on it." He told her with a grin.

Dawn's face took on a slight blush, but smiled nonetheless, "You think so?" She muttered back quietly.

Ash met her cerulean blue eyes with his own deep amber and gave her his answer, "Yeah in fact your much better looking than Misty and May." Ash answered, "Misty... well she was really quite the tomboy and May was really pretty, but the effect was usually ruined because she was stuffing her face with food even more than me." He added a second later with a laugh.

Dawn beamed happily at his compliments on her looks, her heart swelling with just a touch of pride at the boy she liked, a boy who was so travelled, deciding she was the best.

With that she started to engage him in conversation again, hoping for him to explain the different uses of more attacks she could teach her Pokemon and how she could use them in different ways, "I've heard of a powerful water attack called Hydro Cannon before, do you think I could teach it to Piplup?" She asked.

Ash snorted in amusement, "Well yeah, but not for a while yet, not for a long while." He answered, before realizing he'd need to explain his sarcastic answer and went back into mentor mode. "Hydro Cannon is the most powerful Water-Type attack it can learn, and it can only be learned by..."

After reaching the Pokemon Center, and assuring Dawn that Piplup wouldn't be able to learn Hydro Cannon until it either reached the kind of experience his own powerhouse of a Squirtle had or reached it's final evolution – Empoleon – and agreeing to tell her when he thought Piplup was ready and would help teach the little penguin-like Water-Type Pokemon the absurdly powerful attack, they finally got down to their last training session before Dawn's first Contest début.

As Dawn and Ash ate a light lunch, Dawn's Pokemon who had already eaten began their Training in earnest, some of Ash's Pokemon helping out all the while.

He got Dawn to have Piplup keep practising his appeal for his début for the Contest in the next day, since that's the area he would be shining in.

Ursaring was working out with Primeape, who was trying to help the large Normal-Type bear Pokemon learn to be more light on his feet despite all the muscles it had. They also worked on perfecting Ursaring's Hyper Beam; it was taking a little too long to power up and compress enough.

Aipom was having a mock battle with Chimchar, both simian Pokemon using the trees around to their advantage as they swung through the foliage and battled.

And finally Buneary, Ash had implemented some of Primeape's training into Buneary's; he strapped some small weights to her leg's and had Buneary continuously use Bounce until she was exhausted to strengthen her legs so that the small rabbit Pokemon could put more power into her jumps to go even higher and kicks when coming down to finish the attack on opposing Pokemon.

All in all, Ash was rather happy with the progress they made, he was sure they would be able to get quite far in the contest tomorrow if not win outright.

If Ash was happy with the sight before him, Dawn was down right ecstatic with the progress her Pokemon made, and it was all thanks to Ash, she never dreamed her Pokemon would be so strong after only a week into her journey, she was down right giddy about competing in her first Contest and she was determined to win, for herself, for her mother and to prove to Ash that his teachings were not wasted on her.

* * *

 **OMAKE**

 **Written by: Slicerness**

 **Idea by: 0 Jordinio 0**

"...Pikachu, what did I say about stealing all the ketchup? Nurse Joys' may seem sweet but they know syringe-fu. Do you want to try and dodge a couple dozen syringes filled with horrible horrible diseases?" Ash lectured as Pikachu completely ignored him in favour of the red bottle he'd pilfered from the Pokemon Center kitchen.

Pikachu ignored him, waddling away when Ash opened the bathroom door to step into his and Dawn's room as he dried his hair with his towel, desiring to be comfortable when he drank his blessed holy nectar.

"Swear to Arceus I'm going to get you a muzzle one of these days..." Ash muttered darkly. He turned towards where he saw Dawn sitting, only to see her scarlet face for a brief second before she flipped over backwards, propelled by a nosebleed the likes of which he hadn't seen since Brock caught sight of Officer Jenny without a top for the first, and only, time.

Ash never made the connection between the two though, and was instantly concerned for her well being. "Dawn! Are you oh... ah..." He stammered, stumbling to a halt as he took in the sight before him.

Dawn had flipped over backwards off the bed, but just barely so only her head and shoulders actually touched the ground, the rest of her was propped up by the bed. Her legs were slightly spread and her skirt had obeyed gravity's law and fell away. For the second time in his life Ash caught sight of Dawn's near naked butt. She was wearing even more revealing underwear this time though; Ash didn't know what kind, but all that covered her back half was a string that he couldn't even see from it's hiding spot between her round cheeks.

The world flipped and Ash saw beige before everything went black.

Pikachu laughed uproariously from his perch on Ash's bed as he saw his Trainer thrown back by a nosebleed every bit as spectacular as Dawn's and slam into the wall behind him. 'And it's said that Ash's libido grew three sizes that day.' The electric mouse Pokemon singsonged to himself. Human mating rituals still confused the hell out of him - really, why didn't Ash just strut around naked and show off the size of his electricity pouches to his potential mate like any sensible person? - but damn was it amusing!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

* * *

The day had finally come for Dawn to make her first ever Pokemon Contest Début and Ash was currently watching said bluenette with his lips quirked in amusement as she twirled around in front the video phone in the Contest hall showing it off to her mother.

It was a pink, just above the knee-length dress with a black belt and a white collar that dipped down just enough to show the creamy cleavage of Dawn's developing breasts.

Yes, Ash could say safely that the dress looked very good on her, and so could all the other teenage males around who were leering at her as she talked to her mother Johanna, a once famous Coordinator who had even won the Grand Festival once upon a time.

Ash spent his time between admiring Dawn in her new dress and glaring hot death at any and every one of the other teen's who tried to approach her, causing them to usually stumble and spin 180 mid-stride before fleeing.

Who did Ursaring think Pikachu learned where to be intimidating from? Brock?

'You have to admit though, you didn't look all that impressive when you first met me did you?' Metwo's amused voice sounded in his mind as the Psychic Pokemon communicated to him from his Pokeball around Ash's neck.

Ash snorted, but didn't acknowledge Mewtwo's comment other than that, instead he turned to the 17-ish looking young man, who was a bit taller than Ash swagger arrogantly close to Dawn. He stopped however when he caught Ash's amber eyes that had taken on a blue sheen as his aura pulsed in his veins and a murderous glare.

The young cocky-looking brown haired teen wisely turned tail and ran like a coward.

He was broken from his glaring on males approaching his territory as the 'Alpha male' in any area that Dawn was currently inhabiting when he heard Johanna Berlitz ask her Daughter a question, "Dawn where's the choker I sent you with the dress?" She asked curiously.

Dawn seemingly panicked, "There was a choker? I didn't see it anywhere? I might have lost it!" The blue hair girl fretted frantically as she turned in almost every direction looking to see if she could see it anywhere.

Ash was about to try and calm her down when they both heard something that sounded suspiciously like purring behind them.

"Nyaaah." Ash and Dawn heard as they turned to see whatever was making the noise.

Upon turning around they came face to face with a feline Pokemon, it had a curled, spring-shaped tail with a white fluff at the tip of it. The unknown pokemon had a crescent shaped head with two white-tipped ears. It had a white muzzle, a small black nose, pink eyelids, yellow eyes with blue irises, and two rows of thin whiskers. The grey feline Pokemon had a slender physique and it's neck had a ruff-like fringe, its legs having similar fringes. Its feet were tipped with white, and had pink paw pads on the underside.

"It's a Glameow!" Dawn recognized.

"Yeah." Ash agreed, "I saw a few of them when I was researching Sinnoh's native Pokemon before I came to this region. When it comes to straight battling they're usually centered around speed, but they can pack quite a punch because of the variety of moves they can learn. Not sure how they can do in contests." He explained.

The Glameow purred again as it extended it's long spiral tail towards them both, showing the black choker with a pink ribbon clasped held upon it.

"What's this?" Dawn asked as she leaned down a bit to get a better look at the choker.

"Hey that's your choker!" Her mother piped in from the video phone, a relieved smile upon her face.

They were interrupted by another arrival, this time from a rather curvy girl with short messy orange hair with a pair of dark green shades sitting atop her head. She wore an orange unzipped body warmer, with a dark red long sleeved shirt underneath it, a pink Poketch watch sitting upon her right wrist. Below that she wore a pair blue three-quarter length jeans and brown travelling boots. "Ah, there you are." The new arrival stated, her voice was calm and confident, sounding warmas she addressed what was assumed to be her Pokemon. Ash could detect a sultry undertone in her voice, the fact that her voice sounded quite seductive and yet she gave none of the signs of attempting to sound like this struck a point home for Ash; whoever ended up dating this girl would be in for a hell of a good bedroom voice.

It was weird Ash concluded, he'd started noticing girls just before he left for the Hoenn region a little before he turned twelve, but it was only now and then and most of the time it was his eyes being drawn to May's large bust that just seemed to sprout out of nowhere. But here, in the Sinnoh Region he'd been noticing more and more of the female species, mostly Dawn to be honest but he had been paying attention to Dawn way more than he did Misty, or even May.

"Are you the one who found it?" Dawn asked as she stood back up after lifting the choker from Glameow's tail.

Glameow pounced into the girls arms, the orange-haired girl smiling softly at her Pokemon as she answered, "It was on the floor in the dressing room." She replied.

Ash blinked as he came out of his introspective thoughts about girls, "But how did you know it was Dawn's?" he asked curiously.

"Matching it with her was a breeze, she's the only one in this whole place who's wearing something that would go with it." The Orangette answered Ash like it was completely simple. Ash just nodded, pretending he knew what she was talking about.

"I am? Thank you!" Dawn replied brightly as she twirled back around to face her mother on the video phone.

Ash took that moment to blink and stare into space, as if he'd just heard something he couldn't quite comprehend, 'Clothes are supposed to be matched?' He thought to himself puzzled, subconsciously waving goodbye to the orange-haired girl as she left with her Glameow in toe.

"See I've got the choker now so you don't have to worry about a thing." Dawn proclaimed happily to her mother.

Johanna's eyes narrowed and she held a finger up in a chastising fashion, "It's when you tell me not to worry that I worry the most." She replied with a serious look on her face.

Dawn sighed at her mother's familiar proclamation, that answer was like a recurring theme with her. Looking around with a puzzled look came over her face, "Huh?" She questioned, the orange haired girl who had found her choker had disappeared.

Ash saw her confusion and answered, "She already left." He told her.

"Honey!" Johanna but in, drawing her attention back to the video phone, "The last thing you need to be in your first contest is absent-minded so watch out." She chastised.

Dawn whirled back to her mother with a confident grin, "Don't worry!" She declared confidently.

"And what do I do the most when you tell me not to worry?" Was her mother's dull answer, causing Dawn to hang her head in defeat.

Ash decided to save Dawn from any more embarrassment via her mother - he knew just how that could be, what with his own mother constantly reminding him to change his underwear... "Don't worry." Ash said as he stepped up behind Dawn and laid a comforting and supportive hand on her shoulder. "I'll make sure she keeps her head out of the clouds and doesn't bite off more than she can chew." Ash told her with a small easy going smile on his face.

Johanna smiled at him in return. "I know I can trust you Ash-dear." She replied before turning her attention back to Dawn once again, "I'll be glued to the T.V. watching, so good luck!" She reminded her Daughter once more.

Dawn finally came out of her defeated slump and gave another confident smile, "Okay Mom." She answered confidently, and with that Johanna cut off the video feed.

Dawn sighed when the screen went blank, "Arceus, dealing with my mother is always a mission." The bluenette lamented.

Ash laughed as he slipped his arm around her shoulder and started guiding her towards the waiting room for contestants, "I know the feeling, my Mom is the exact same." He told her. Seeing Ash leave his post for another one Pikachu filled his previous position; hopping on his shoulder and scaring off more males approaching with the same aura filled glares and sparking cheeks Ash had been using earlier, sans electrical intimidation, obviously.

"Really?" Dawn asked, not noticing all the other males in the room shy away from the intimidating looking young Pokemon sitting on her friend's shoulder.

"Yup." Ash replied, "Every single time I see her she always goes on about how I need to..."

Ash faced Dawn's uproarious laughter at his expense with a content smile, happy he'd cleared some of her embarrassment.

* * *

The crowd cheered loudly up in the stands as the dim-lighting of the large Contest Hall was illuminated by a spotlight shining down on the stage at the very middle of the room, showing a beautiful brown haired woman wearing a yellow dress with a microphone in hand.

"Greetings and a warm welcome to all you Coordinator and Contest lovers of all ages." She spoke clearly, the sound of her voice travelling loudly and clearly over the whole Contest Hall thanks to the speakers lining the walls, "You've all come together for one very special reason. That's to find out who will take home the coveted and fabulous Jubilife Contest ribbon! Now I know you've all been waiting patiently so now it's time for you all to be rewarded." She declared.

With that declaration sparks flew high into the air from both ends of the Contest stage as the large dome-like roof atop the Contest Hall opened up and slid away, showing the clear and sunny blue sky to everyone present.

"We're coming at you live and on-stage from the stadium located in Jubilife City! The city of joy!" She continued, "Time for me to introduce our judges, and heeeere they are!" She shouted loudly into the microphone.

"Head of the judges community and Pokemon Contest direction, Mr. Contesta!" She introduced first.

"Thank you, thank you, it's great to be here." An older man with greyish black hair and a red blazer replied to the loud cheering he received.

"And now the head of the Pokemon fan-club! Mr. Sukizo!" She introduced next.

An incredible short, almost bald middle-aged man wearing a blue business suit stepped up beside Mr. Contesta, "Remarkable is the word, thanks." He stated.

"And finally, Jubilife cities very own Nurse Joy!" The brown haired woman introduced last.

The beautiful pink haired nurse stepped up next, "Wow! When it comes to seeing all the amazing and splendid Pokemon, I can't wait!" She called out to the crowd as she waved happily to her cheering section.

"Oh, I forgot me!" The brown haired announcer said bashfully, "I'm Marian, and I'm thrilled to be the master of ceremonies, thanks so much!" She declared happily, in her loud perky voice.

Marian then ran to the middle of the stage as she got ready to start off the appeal round, "And now it's time for the first round, where one by one our contestants take their spot on this stage, the purpose of this round is to see how her contestant make their Pokemon shine, showing off power and beauty.

* * *

"Ohhh..." Dawn moaned dejectedly as she tried to fix her hair into a pony-tail, "I'm supposed to be already to go and I can't even get my hair ready."

She was surprised when the orangette who had found her choker earlier that day stepped up behind her and began helping her fix her hair up, "Here, let me help you." She told Dawn.

"Oh, thank you!" Dawn replied, relief evident in her tone.

Dawn smiled as she relaxed and looked into their reflections in the mirror, "I didn't introduce myself earlier, I'm Dawn." Dawn said.

"I'm Zoe." The now named Zoe replied, "So is this your first Contest?" She asked Dawn curiously.

"Yea, how'd you know?" Dawn asked curiously.

Zoe chuckled, "You've got that first time vibe." She answered.

Dawn sighed dejectedly, her thin layer of self confidence popping like a bubble, " Oh, lovely." She deadpanned, before perking up, "So have you been in Contests before?" The bluenette questioned.

"Sure have." Zoe replied proudly.

"Wow." Dawn gushed slightly, "Have you won any ribbons yet?" She asked next.

"Three contests, one ribbon." The older girl replied even more proudly.

"Wow, can I see it?" Dawn asked sparkly eyed. She was answered by an orange ribbon case being dropped in her lap gently as Zoe continued to try and fix Dawn's blue hair into a pony-tail.

Flicking it open, Dawn let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding as she stared at the sparkling ribbon sitting on blue velvet cushion, "Oh it's just adorable." Dawn praised.

"All set Dawn." Zoe replied after finally getting the bluenette's hair to settle in a stylish ponytail.

Dawn stood up and handed Zoe her orange ribbon case as she turned to her, "Now it's my turn to win." Dawn stated calmly.

"Yeah?" Zoe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sure of it, there's no way I can't do well with everything Ash has taught me!" Dawn declared proudly.

Zoe raised an eyebrow at the admission, "Why are you so sure, he just seems like any normal guy to me, albeit a very cute guy, but a normal guy nonetheless." The red eyed girl asked.

Dawn felt her teeth grind a little at the reminder that Ash was very cute, and as such a guy many girls would be interested in him. She'd deal with marking her claim on him later, for now she decided to give Zoe the benefit of the doubt, the orange haired girl had been nothing but nice and helpful to her after all. "Well, I don't think he'd mind me telling you, he seems really mellow about this kind of thing." Dawn replied, a little unsure before deciding to just go with it. "Back when I was in Sandgem town, right after Ash offered me the choice of travelling with him, Professor Rowan told me that Ash was an incredibly skilled and experienced Trainer, so much so that he could go toe to toe with almost any of the members of the Elite Four and have a good shot in coming out the winner." She admitted, quite a bit of pride in her voice. She couldn't help it, not when she was now close friends – hopefully someday more – and travelling companion of such a powerful Trainer.

Zoe recoiled a bit in shock as her eyes went wide, "That guy could take on the Elite Four!?" She shouted in surprise and a heavy dose of trepidation. She could possibly be facing this suddenly intimidating and yet still cute boy.

Dawn nodded, "Yeah that's what I was told, and I believe it all the way. I mean he showed us some of his official battles on his Trainer information page and I personally saw him defeat three legendary Pokemon in one on one battle in the videos; an Articuno with his Charizard, a Deoxys with his Sceptile and finally a Regice with that little Pikachu on his shoulder." The blue eyed girl stated soundly.

Zoe swallowed audibly as she collapsed into one of the chairs, "And this guy's competing in this contest?" She asked, her voice hollow as she rested her head on her arms.

Dawn nodded but had a smile on her face, "Yup, but he did tell me he's gonna be using one of his newest Pokemon, and that while all of his Pokemon are strong, this one's near the lower tier on the totem pole because he hasn't Trained it all that much, he just wouldn't tell me what the Pokemon was." She told her fellow female Coordinator.

Zoe sighed in relief, "Thank Arceus, the chances are still slim but at least now I have a chance." She muttered as she stood up, cursing herself inwardly though for losing her cool so easily, even if she couldn't exactly blame herself, the Elite Four were on a whole other level of power compared to normal trainers after all, so much so that they could defeat full hordes of Pokemon using only one of their own and have that Pokemon sustain no damage whatsoever. If this Ash guy's Pokemon were at that level, she honestly couldn't see what chance she had of winning, maybe in like 5 years of constant Training, but only being a few months into her own journey – it hurt her pride to admit – and if she went up against one of those monsters Dawn told her about that had defeated Legendary Pokemon! Then her Glameow and other Pokemon would be crushed like bugs.

At least he was using one of his weakest Pokemon, or at least his lesser Trained Pokemon.

Mustering her courage, Zoe stood up again and gave Dawn what she hoped was a calm smile, "Well, I'll see you out there Dawn." She said as evenly as possible before turning on her heel and hurriedly leaving the changing room.

Dawn watched her go, a bit worried about how nervous she seemed to get after being so calm, just from hearing about how strong a Trainer Ash was, "I can't really blame her I suppose, but I know Ash, and he wouldn't be unnecessarily cruel by unleashing Pikachu in the battle round. If he did he could take almost every Contestant here on at the same time and Pikachu would take every single Pokemon out with one attack." Dawn muttered to herself, a large sweatdrop sliding down the back of her head at the thought of Pikachu being unleashed in a one-on-one battle against some random tournament Coordinator, the poor kid would be lucky if Pikachu toned his attacks down enough not to burn the kids Pokemon to a blackened, twitching charred husk.

Honestly, after seeing Ursaring, who was supposedly what Ash called a powerhouse of a Pokemon, battle Pikachu and get beat around like a volleyball, she had no idea just how to justify how Powerful Pikachu was.

Was the little yellow electric rodent a Pokemon who had ascended into the 'Legendary' category? But didn't Ash say his Charizard was stronger? Was his Charizard also a normal Pokemon who had ascended to the power of a Legendary as well, but even more so? Was there a level above Legendary?

Dawn shook her head to rid herself of the crazy theories, "I need to hurry up and go meet up with Ash in the waiting room." She told herself as she slapped her cheeks, she needed to drop such stupid theories no matter how true they looked.

Shaking her head again, the blue haired girl opened the door of the changing room and stepped out before she began rushing her way towards the Waiting Room to meet up with Ash.

* * *

Ash leaned against the wall right next to the door of the waiting room with his arms crossed, his head was dipped a bit and he had his eyes closed as he took deep relaxing breaths, taking the short time he had left before the contest officially started to center himself.

It was something he'd been doing in every tournament type event he'd participated in since just before he defeated his old rival Gary, something he considered to be his first big stepping stone. He may have counted his making it into the top 16 during the Indigo League if his loss to Ritchie wasn't so humiliating.

Charizard was still apologizing for that to this day. Back then he hadn't been aware of just how much he'd cost his Trainer. The would-be legendary made sure to give at least 120% every battle, even against weak opponents to make up for the devastating loss he'd cost Ash. Ash himself had repeatedly told Charizard it was in the past and he was just happy he was following his orders now, but Charizard was stubborn like that.

The centering was something that had helped him as a mediocre Trainer defeat his childhood rival, and even he had to admit - even if grudgingly - was that Gary was extremely talented and had inherited his brains from his Grandfather, quite the scary combination when it was all said and done.

After he started centering himself was when his career as a Trainer really started to sky rocket. He'd lost very few battles since the beginning of his Hoenn journey. Once against Norman Maple, Once again Brawly, and then his only other real loss in the Hoenn region was against the strongest of the Elite Four of Hoenn, Drake the Dragon Master, who was said to be just as strong as any of the Region Champions thanks to his overwhelmingly powerful team of Dragons; his own official battle team consisting of four different Dragon-type Psuedo-Legendary Pokemon. It was said that Drake had a Dragonite, a Garchomp, a Pokemon from a far off region called Unova named Hydreigon and finally, his most powerful Pokemon, his Salamence.

Ash could remember vividly the defeat he'd been handed by Drake's Flygon and Altaria way back when. Pikachu and Grovyle put up a good fight but ultimately lost, it had beaten the arrogance completely out of his head, the two strongest in his Hoenn team being completely outclassed by the weakest of Drake's official team had really brought it into prospective for him, and from then on out he and his Pokemon had been Training harder than ever.

His Battle Frontier career was even better, he again only suffered three losses, one because he underestimated Anabel and twice to Brandon. Sceptile lost to Regirock because he wasn't even in control of his body at the time and the guy who'd possessed him had no idea how to command Sceptile in battle like he did, and then Torkoal had taken on Registeel, another Legendary Pokemon and was beaten, albeit barely.

Now that Ash thought about it, Torkoal was quite the powerhouse too, it's not like just any Pokemon could go toe to toe with Legendaries...

Ash shook his head marvelling at his stupidity, even after all this time he still didn't know the full extent of all of his Pokemon's abilities, except Pikachu and Charizard. Especially Charizard, actually, he'd pushed Mewtwo to his limit.

'Mewtwo, each new town or city we stop in, I'm going to trade around my Pokemon and I want you to battle each and every one of them, even the new ones so I know what their limit's are, so I can work to make them surpass them.' Ash said in his head eyes still shut as he breathed in calmly and deeply, knowing his own Legendary Pokemon could hear him despite being in his Pokeball.

'Very well.' He heard Mewtwo reply in his head along with the familiar pulse of something he felt in his mind whenever Mewtwo talked to him in his thoughts.

He was brought from his centering of himself when he heard a familiar breathless voice panting beside him, opening his eyes he saw Dawn leaning against the wall beside him breathing heavily as she tried to suck great lungfuls of air into her chest.

"There you are, I was wondering what was taking you so long." Ash told her with a small smile.

Dawn smiled back as she stood up straight, "No need to worry, I couldn't get my hair up right until Zoe helped me." She replied.

Ash looked her over, noting the style pony-tail her sleek deep blue hair was in now, "I like it, it shows off your pretty face well and goes well with your dress." Ash complimented, mentally filing the name 'Zoe' away, obviously it was the orange haired girl who had found Dawn's choker earlier that day, or else Dawn wouldn't have mentioned her as if Ash had known her.

Dawn beamed at the compliment on her looks, "You think?" She asked as she did a little twirl to show off her hair and dress.

Ash nodded, "Absolutely."

Dawn smiled back at him a bit shyly as a small red hue spread across her cheeks. She turned her head towards the screen that was showing the Stage to hide her blushing face and began speaking again, "So, when does the actual Appeal Round begin?" She asked.

Ash smirked at her, not all that bothered by her not looking at him when she voiced her question, "Right this very second." He replied.

Just as he said that Marian began speaking into her microphone on the large screen, "Put your hands together for contestant number one, it's Zoe!" She introduced as the purple curtains opened and Marian stepped out of the line of the camera to show the orange haired girl standing confidently in her long white shirt and teal pants.

Ash raised his eyebrow at the decidedly male looking clothing, from what he'd learned so far most girls preferred the more 'fashionable' and 'cute' clothes during events like these... not that he understood it all that well, or anything having to do with fashion. Both Misty and May had dragged him clothes shopping for hundreds of different outfits yet he hadn't seen them wear one beside their usual outfit once. He knew they owned them all, he'd been talked into carrying them, but while shopping and while travelling, enough times to curse their existence, and yet neither girl seemed to stray from their every-day outfits.

They both watched as Zoe released a well-Trained looking Misdreavous, a Ghost-Type Pokemon, her seal exploding in a large cloud of smoke where a large outline of a giant Misdreavous appeared, before the cloud was dispersed by four other rather see-through Misdreavous' bursting from the original and flying to the far corners of the large hall and disappearing as the original Ghost-type unleashed powerful wave after wave of the Electric-Type attack Shock Wave.

Ash had to admit, the girl had a lot of skill. She'd go far in the Contest World. Her Pokemon, from what he'd seen so far, weren't quite as strong as May's when she'd competed in the Hoenn Ever Grande Conference, but she definitely had as much skill as May did then.

Pretty darn good for a girl who he gathered had only been a Trainer for a few months, and had been doing it alone without a more experienced Trainer like himself for Dawn or Brock for him, helping her out. Still, he could see some flaws, such as the Shock Wave fluctuating slightly because there wasn't quite enough power being put into it, and how the electricity wasn't quite as bright as it was when an Electric-Type attack was truly mastered. It wasn't something the judges of a normal Contest would notice, or even a vast majority of people watching, both inside the stage and on TV; someone would have needed to have extensive knowledge on Pokemon attacks or have worked a long time with an Electric-Type like himself to have noticed, so he doubted she'd be losing points over it.

Electric-Type Pokemon were, after all, the hardest of every type to Train beside the small group that contained Psuedo-Legendary, and even then it was only really cowing their attitude so their heavy amount of fire power didn't go to their head, causing them and ignore their Trainer's orders.

Electric-Type Pokemon had a set amount of electricity they could store in their body, too little inside them and they'd be very hungry a lot of the time, not too mention tired, lethargic and just generally apathetic because of how tired they really felt. Too much and they'd become feverish, go through extreme amounts of pain and risk losing control of the power inside them and exploding.

Ash himself had only seen three Pokemon that could hold more electricity than their body's should be able to handle, two of them would be the Legendary Electric-Types, Riakou and Zapdos. And the third being his very own Pikachu; a fact he'd already spent many afternoons in awe of as he saw just how much power the little mouse had at his disposal.

All three of them, when they really started to use their full power, the color of their electricity would change. He'd only seen Zapdos do it twice and only heard that Riakou could do it, never witnessing it personally, but Pikachu, depending on his mood during the battle, his electricity would flicker between light blue or crimson red.

The crimson red electricity was something Ash figured might have been a side effect, that occurred thanks to that incident with Groudon and Pikachu absorbing the red orb.

It did look cool though, deadly, but very cool. It had a lot of contest potential, and if Dawn made a good enough offer and had a good idea on how to use it – and Pikachu got a handle on how to do it willingly – he would definitely lend her his Starter.

Ash was broken from his musings on Electric-Types when he heard Dawn let out a nervous breath, something he'd been able to pick up on about her when she was nervous because it sounded kind of like her breath shook halfway through each time she blew the air out of her nose and mouth.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked worriedly.

Dawn let out a small whine, "Did you see that? That was flawless! How am I supposed to compete with that? What if everybody here is that good and I just cant compare?" The beautiful blue haired girl fretted, a worried frown marring her beautiful face.

Ash noted the arrogant 17-year old looking guy from earlier, who he now noted had green eyes and spiky brown hair, and was now wearing a red and black Tauros fighting uniform, swaggering towards them, his leering eyes locked on Dawn's body.

Ash glared at him, but the boy seemed to have grown a pair since earlier as he glared back right back before a smirk flashed across his face.

Ash stepped things up a notch though as he reached over and gently pulled Dawn by the shoulders into a tight embrace, letting the shorter girl - by a few inches - bury her face in the crook of his neck.

He rubbed up and down her back soothingly with one of his hand while the other was wrapped around her waist. Once he was sure Dawn was returning the hug Ash looked up and smirked mockingly at the other boy, stopping his hand from rubbing her back soothingly for a second as gestured to her before going back to rubbing her back, mouthing, 'Mine' as he did so.

While it was a little over-the-top in Ash's opinion, it worked; the older boy's face flamed in what Ash deduced to be rage, before he turned and stomped his way back to where he was sitting before.

Ash decided to worry about him later as he turned as attention back to Dawn and lay his chin atop her hair, "Don't worry about it. I'm not going to lie; that girl is exceptionally skilled." He told her, his voice low and soothing, "But I'm also telling the truth when I say I guarantee that with the performance you've got ready you'll make it to the finals easily, and with what I've taught you so far, you have a good shot at taking the whole thing." He added reassuringly.

He decided he'd share his earlier thoughts with her as well, just in case she needed another boost. "Zoe's performance wasn't flawless, by the way."

He felt rather than heard Dawn's curious murmur and elaborated. "Her Pokemon's Shock Wave was under-powered. It would have looked a lot brighter if it'd been used properly. It could be it hadn't learned it properly, but it's also possible her Misdreavous just didn't have the reserves of power required to keep up the show and needed to sacrifice some power to complete the act."

This seemed to work, as Dawn straightened, just a little more confident at proof that even something that impressive had fallacies in it.

He let that hang for a moment before he tapped into a little of his old arrogance – something he kept at the back of his mind just in case – and allowed a smug smirk to come across his face, "Except me, of course. I'm absolutely flawless all the time and nobody could even come close to beating me." He boasted arrogantly.

His plan worked, and he heard/felt Dawn giggle against his neck, the musical sound causing his neck to vibrate slightly from the close proximity of her mouth, sending a pleasurable shiver down his spine.

Dawn pulled back slightly and looked deep into his eyes, meeting amber with blue, "Thanks, you've only known me for just over a week and you seem to know just what to say whenever I feel down." She said as she lifted one of her hands up and gently trailed it down the side of his face.

Ash brought his own hand up and cupped hers against his cheek as they both continued to stare into each other's eyes.

Dawn licked her lips to moisten them and Ash inclined his head down just a bit, Dawn following suit to raise her head to meet his.

Both travelling companions head's began to move, making to meet the other in the middle, their lips getting closer and closer.

Five inches.

Four inches.

Three inches.

Two inches.

One inch!

Their lips were brushing against each other's, parting slightly, rough red lips just about to meet pouty pink in an open mouthed kiss when-

"Mr. Ketchum you're up next." The stage manager called into the room as he rifled through his clip board as he turned and left the area.

Dawn and Ash, who had been just about to share a passionate kiss, completely face faulted past each other and face planted right into the floor.

Standing up, they met gazes again, Dawn with an embarrassed red hue on her face and Ash looking guiltily awkward.

Shaking his head Ash gave her a confident smile, displaying an emotion he really wasn't feeling at the moment, "We'll talk about this later." He told her, and without giving her time to answer he leaned forward and pecked her gently on the forehead before pulling back, turning on his feet and vacating the waiting room.

Dawn watched him go, a small smile working across her face before she cursed, "Damnit, so close!" She yelled, thoroughly annoyed.

* * *

Walking in confident strides down the hall, Ash came face to face with Zoe and gave her a nod and grin, "Great work out there, although you should really work on that Shock Wave, your Misdreavous still needs to learn a bit more control and add more power into the attack so they won't fluctuate like that." Ash advised as he walked straight past.

Zoe turned and watched him go, a curious frown on her face, 'He figured all that out just from a brief performance?' She questioned mentally in slight shock.

* * *

"And now do we have a treat for you!" Marian declared to the side of the stage, "From all the way from Pallet Town in the Kanto Region, I give you Pokemon Ranger Ash Ketchum!" The yellow dress wearing woman shouted into the microphone in her hand.

The crowd erupted into massive cheers as the purple curtains were pulled away to show Ash standing with his arms crossed; calm, cool and collected, a purple tinted Pokeball with a seal on the front clasped in clear view in one of his crossed arms.

Loosening his arm, Ash threw the Pokeball into the air, it opening and to reveal the Pokemon inside, as well as a massive tornado spinning rapidly into view thanks to the seal.

"Pidgeot, show them your power." Ash's voice rang out calmly.

Pidgeot fazed into view, almost as large as two average Pidgeot put together. Pidgeot was a large bird of prey The feathers on his head-crest were nearly as long as his body, and were yellow and red. His tail feathers were a red color and like its previous evolutions, his underbelly was a tan color, topping off his markings was a black line that extended from his eyes down to his jaw, making his eyes seem even more predatorial looking.

Flipping elegantly backwards in mid-air as he came out of the Pokeball, Pidgeot flapped his wings powerfully, completely disrupting the towering grey tornado of wind that appeared and dispersing it into nothing but small flakes of energy that fell steadily to the ground from directly above Ash.

The Trainer in question standing calmly with his arms crossed again looking towards the crowd, with his large Pidgeot flapping it's wings gently above him.

"Wow what a majestic appearance by Pidgeot, it's much larger than average and dispersed that tornado with nothing but a flap of it's wings, what power!" Marian gushed.

Ash allowed a small smirk to appear on his face, as he gave the order, "Pidgeot, show them your speed just like we practised and use Twister."

Pidgeot seemingly blurred out of existence only to re-appear in the exact same spot, except now their was four more Pidgeot forming a pentagon shape above Ash.

"Wow would you look at that, that's no Double Team folks, this is all pure speed!" Marian chattered into her microphone excitedly.

Each Pidgeot seemingly began flapping their wings harshly, creating a large white towering tornado each, when in fact it was just Pidgeot using the attack and moving on to the other spots and doing the same, too fast for the human eye to follow, thus creating after-images.

When they were done, five, forty feet high tornadoes surrounded Ash. Four of the Pidgeot's suddenly vanished as the original flapped up into the air higher.

"Oh my, Ash Ketchum is standing between those powerful tornado's and he isn't even batting an eye!" Marian shouted into her microphone over the howling winds, using one hand to keep her hair in place from the gale force winds.

Ash called out his next command, loudly and clearly, "Air Cutter."

Pidgeot held both wings together as they glowed a deep blue, before launching them forward in a whipping motion downwards, creating a large ring of cutting energy that surrounded all five tornado;s and began shrinking, pulling them all together, right on top of Ash! Fusing them all together into one massive two hundred feet high tornado that towered into the sky, the blue cutting energy ring of the Air Cutter, orbiting around the tornado like a planetary ring.

"Oh my Arceus!" Marian screamed in fear, "Pokemon Ranger or not is he crazy?"

She was interrupted by Pidgeot cawing loudly as he took to speeding right up into the air until he was so far up in the sky he was just a dot to the audience.

And then Ash's voice rang calmly and loudly, despite the incredible loud gale force winds of the towering tornado, "Finish, with Brave Bird!" His disembodied voice commanded sharply.

From above, Pidgeot was covered in fire as he rocketed down from another two hundred feet above the tornado, the fire turning into a shining blue energy before Pidgeot picked up speed and disappeared in a blur so fast he broke the sound barrier and speared straight down through the massive towering tornado in seconds, completely destroying it and bringing Ash into view, his hair messed up a little more, but still standing calmly, his arms crossed and a calm smirk across his face. Pidgeot was at his side already, towering over him by a good few feet at least, his chest puffed out proudly.

The Contest Hall was silent for a few moments, before everyone there burst into a wild thunderous applause, clapping and screaming.

"What a performance! He stood inside the eye of that massive tornado as if it were nothing, showing his absolute trust in his Pokemon! Pidgeot took no damage whatsoever from that extremely powerful Brave Bird! I can't believe this, this is one of the most amazing performances I have witnessed in my entire life!" Marian gushed in awe.

After calming down Marian spoke up again, this time in a voice that wasn't at the top of her lungs "And now let's here from our judges on this spectacular performance." She said into her microphone.

Ash knew Dawn was probably going crazy with worry, both for her own sake and possibly his after his seemingly dangerous performance and he wanted to hurry this along, so with a bow to the crowd and judges he recalled Pidgeot and walked back to the Waiting Room, gaining another round of applause from the crowd.

"Now that's confidence, he isn't even staying for the judges verdict!" Marian gushed, slightly amazed at the set of stones the young Ranger must have on him.

* * *

Zoe watched the whole performance beside Dawn, wide-eyed and in shock, 'Is that what it's like? To be one of the Elite? I've seen well taken care of Pidgeots' before, that one was at least double the size of a normal one, is that the kind of power the Elite Trainers wield?' The orangette's thoughts raged.

Dawn was in complete and undisguised awe, sure she had been greatly worried by the foolhardy performance, but the grace, power, speed and trust between Trainer and Pokemon in that appeal was staggering, 'I still have a very long way to before I'll even reach half of the skill Ash has.' She realized, and what more she realized was that she didn't even care, it didn't matter to her that Ash could probably achieve her entire dream of being a world class Coordinator within a month or two if he really wanted it, the performance he just showed was just so... Ash!

And Dawn realized, she wouldn't have him any other way.

Even if he was obviously at least slightly mentally unhinged, what kind of loon stood in the middle of a massive cloud parting tornado? Voluntarily at that?

Dawn shook her head, she really needed to curb some of that boys craziness.

"Dawn Berlitz, you're up next." The announcer Dawn wished to kick in the face for interrupting her fond thoughts. A sudden wave of nervousness made itself known in the form of a cold knot in her belly.

Zoe must have noticed this because Dawn felt the slightly older girl pat her on the back. "You'll do great Dawn. Trust me, you're psyching yourself up for nothing. If he is the one who taught you I think the only thing you have to worry about are these nerves of yours." She said confidently, gesturing towards the TV that was currently playing Pidgeot's performance in slow motion. Even as slow as the camera could go they could still just barely make out Pidgeot as he swapped places with his psuedo-Double Team.

"Y-yeah. Yeah! I can do this!" Dawn agreed, pumping her fist and walking confidently towards the door leading to the Stage. "Thanks Zoe!" She called over her shoulder as she slipped outside.

On her way through the hallway she walked by Ash. Neither said anything, but a strange occurrence happened when they passed. Ash raised his hand and Dawn found herself high fiving him without thinking about it. It was an utterly bizarre gesture where she expected some kind of last minute pep talk. The gesture itself seemed to say 'Tag, your turn.'.

And suddenly Dawn got it. It was her turn. They weren't enemies, and even in a tournament like this they weren't really competitors either. They were friends, partners, in this together. She wasn't alone; Ash would be right behind her.

Dawn Berlitz walked onto stage of her first Contest with a radiant smile on her face and confidence in her walk. Maybe she would screw this up, maybe she'd even injure herself, worst case scenario, but that really didn't matter right now. It was her turn and she wanted to give her partner a show.

* * *

Ash nodded to Zoe as he re-entered the waiting room. Taking his place leaning against the wall beside the door again, Ash crossed his arms and focused his attention on the screen showing the Stage, where Dawn was just about to be introduced.

'Go on Dawn, show everybody just how good you are.' He thought to himself.

* * *

"Our next Contestant is a local first timer, a young Coordinator who hails from Twinleaf Town! let's give her a warm welcome." Marian introduced, "It's Dawn!"

The crowd cheered loudly as the curtains pulled back to reveal Dawn in her pink dress.

Dawn breathed deeply and calmly as she could, before a small smile worked it's way onto her face, her confidence was still in high spirits thanks to her little 'pep talk' from Ash back in the waiting room.

Tossing her purple tinted and seal covered Pokeball into the air, Dawn released her starter, "Piplup, spotlight!" She called out.

From the Pokeball, Piplup appeared riding a wave of pure blue sparkling water straight in front of Dawn before it settled down and evaporated, leaving Piplup to land nimbly and gracefully.

"Alright Piplup, use Mist!" Dawn ordered perkily.

"Lup!" The small blue penguin responded as he aimed his head skyward before opening his small yellow beak and unleashing a pure white mist into the air that congregated above the stage in the shape of a cloud.

"Okay Piplup now use Bubblebeam!" Dawn ordered next a giddy smile taking place on her face. Her nerves were easing as she ignored everything except her Pokemon.

Piplup obeyed, aiming skyward again unleashed a multitude of large shinning blue bubbles into the air.

"Okay Piplup time for the big finish, now use Peck!" Dawn called out to her starter Pokemon.

Piplup concentrated and his beak glowed white, before the small beak lengthened to an even larger size; it was now about the size of the beak on Ash's Pidgeot.

"Wow, Piplup is storing some serious energy!" Marian noted.

Having concentrated all the power he could into his beak, Piplup launched himself skyward and began to peck through every single bubble rapidly, bursting all of them within a few moments and as he flipped down and posed in a bow in front of Dawn, small blue sparkling flecks of energy rained down from above, looking as if it were coming from cloud formed by the Mist attack.

"A truly splendid performance, the combination of beauty, speed and cuteness kept me riveted." Mr. Contesta said from his seat at the judges table.

"Remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo agreed.

Nurse Joy spoke up last, "It was so easy to see Piplup's talent, I couldn't take my eyes off of them." The beautiful nurse concluded in her usual soft spoken voice.

Dawn smiled gratefully at them as she returned Piplup to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy, before she turned on her heel and rushed out of the stage, trying to calm her heart as it thundered away in her chest.

Johanna, who was watching the performance on the television in her living room sat on her couch with a proud smile on her face as she rubbed the head of her Glameow, "Not bad, it was very well thought out, I wasn't expecting her to be this good for another few months yet." She said aloud, pride evident in her tone.

Dawn sighed in relief as she entered the waiting room and turned to her left to find Ash leaning against the wall in his usual position, "Wow..." She breathed out, "My heart was beating like a drum." Dawn said to him.

Ash opened his eyes and gave her a lazy smirk, "You done fine, great in fact, I bet nobody was expecting such a great performance from someone who was just getting started on their journey."

Pikachu from his shoulder, sparked his cheeks and gave her a thumbs up, "Pika!" The yellow rodent cheered her on.

They were interrupted by the arrival of Zoe who gave Dawn a smile, "That was a good performance, especially for your first time." The orangette told Dawn in her low sultry voice.

All three of them were interrupted from further conversation again by the sound of Marian's voice coming from the screen, "And now it's time for the judges results! These are the Coordinators who will be moving on down the line to the next round!" She cheered as the camera zoomed in on the large blank screen that was high above the audience in the Contest Hall.

The screen suddenly blinked on as one by one, faces started to appear.

First Ash's face appeared getting a smirk out of him, "Was there ever any doubt?" He stated arrogantly, only to grin as Dawn smacked his arm playfully.

Next came the arrogant 17-year old looking boy Ash had been having a glaring contest with, and then Zoe's image appeared third, getting a smile out of the orange-hared girl.

The 4th, 5th and 6th images were all non-descripit trainers Ash hadn't really been paying attention to during the appeal round.

And then finally on the 7th image, Dawn's picture appeared, right before the 8th appeared; a large rotund balding man.

Dawn released the breath she'd been holding, "Wow, I made it..." she breathed out in relief.

She was brought out of her relief filled thoughts when Ash placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him and meet his eyes, "Like I said, there was no doubt." He stated, completely confident in her ability.

Dawn looked away as her face flushed red, looking at the screen just as the battles were decided for the next round.

Ash smirked as he saw his opponent was the arrogant older teen who had been leering at Dawn, his battle was first.

Zoe's was second and she was facing a black haired, green eyed woman.

The 3rd round was between a muscular man wearing a karate-gi and a spectacled woman wearing a long blue dress that went well with her green hair.

And finally, Dawn was last against the rotund man.

The Battle Round roster had been decided, now all they had to do was win their battles.

* * *

 **OMAKE**

 **Written by: Slicerness**

 **Idea by: Slicerness, 0 Jordinio 0**

 **Pikachu's many troubles**

 **Or**

 **A Guide on how to Train your Human**

Keeper Pikachu was determined to Train his Human to the best of his abilities. Unfortunately, his quest to be the greatest Human Master that ever lived was hampered heavily, seemingly by Fate's own cruel hand. Training a Human was hard work, and the environment played a large part of it. For instance, Bitchy Ginger with the decent ass was really working against him here. Every time he tried to create some building blocks for his Human to start Training with, namely, muscles for stamina and physical appeal, the redheaded girl had to show up and taunt him, which made him stop unless Pikachu shocked him.

This strategy wouldn't work, both because he'd develop an immunity to his lightning and because too much negative reinforcement was bad for Humans, or so he'd heard.

Pikachu's first year of Keeping was a failure. He gave it up as a bad job partway through their journey through Kanto with Bitchy Ginger around to halt any and all attempts he made to start his Keeping career with his charge.

It wasn't until Hoenn that Pikachu tried again. Unfortunately, he and his Human had grown complacent and any opportunities fate threw him and his Human were utterly wasted because Pikachu was so far behind. At the very least his Human was developing a good mentality, his eyes lingering on the Busty Brunette's ample bosom for longer than they would have if Bitchy Ginger had sprouted breasts. Pikachu largely blamed himself for this failure, but spent the rest of the Hoenn journey Training his Human hard.

It wasn't all Pikachu's fault though. For some reason Busty Brunette had a very weird set of priorities in prospective breeding partners. It was almost enough to cause Pikachu to tear his hair out when he saw the Human girl paying attention to the wrong kind of Human. He didn't know what was going though Busty Brunette's head! They'd went to the pool with Grass Haired Weirdo and he was built like a twig! His human was tough, muscled and strong thanks to Pikachu's expert Training! He picked a fist fight with Mewtwo and a Lucario for crying out loud! Why would Busty Brunette want the Grass Haired weakling when his human was much stronger! How did she expect to get a strong mate if she was so obsessed with the weakling?

Pikachu once again threw up his paws and cursed confusing human mating rituals. Why couldn't it be simple?

There was little to be said about the Battle Frontier except maybe the purple haired mind reading human female that looked like a human male, but that was better left unsaid, but Pikachu could feel something on the horizon. It was like something big was going to appear, something that would make all his frustration at he and his Human's fate worth it! So he trained his Human harder than ever. His charge and his chances of fulfilling his silly quest to be a 'Pokemon Master' improved markedly as a result, and Pikachu let the Human think his dreams meant something because it made him happy.

As Pikachu stared up at the two large round cheeks from beneath the tiny skirt of his Human's newest possible travelling companion, and most capable female Human to become his Human's breeding partner yet, he pumped his paw. Success!

 **Months Later**

As Pikachu watched his Human completely exhaust Perky Blue for the fourth time that week, who had since become his breeding partner, he nodded in a self-satisfied manner. It took some work - okay, ALOT of work - but he'd done it! He was at the end of his journey as a Keeper, at least mostly. Now he could sit back and let his Human make a reputation for himself. His human could now do all the work while Pikachu sat back and reaped the benefits.

"You're the best Keeper ever Pikachu! Look at them go, I don't think she can feel her legs anymore!" Buneary gushed as she raised her head.

Pikachu smirked, "I know it baby, I know it." He answered smugly before placing a paw on her hand and lowering hear head. "And I didn't say stop."

Truly, the greatest prize; all of these plentiful, warm, wet benefits.

* * *

 **Done.**


	6. Chapter 6

**You know guys, it's kind of amusing. I've more or less monopolized the title 'Working _ With Skill'. I've got Working Sinnoh, Working Hoenn and Working the World uploaded at the moment. Mind you if people didn't bother me so much Sinnoh wouldn't be getting uploaded again.**

 **I've also had, as little as possible hopefully remember Working Unova With Skill, but that got taken down waaaay back and I'm glad it did because it's even worse than this pile of shit I'm uploading at the moment.**

 **Moving on to the point. I just hadn't fully realized how many stories I've used with such a similar premise. I mean, I even have two completely different Working Kalos With Skill stories planned out.**

 **One, would follow a similar premise to my other Working _ stories and would just be Ash starting off the Kalos strong instead of burning out at the very first gym.**

 **The other, one I'm fairly certain I'll do at some point would be more or less a different starter challenge type of story with Ash beginning his journey in the Kalos Region.**

 **It would be AU before he ever even began his journey. I got the idea while playing Pokemon World Online and training a Meowth. Suddenly, I was thinking that Ash training Team Rocket's Meowth would be pretty cool and had the idea of Ash finding him right after he's shunned by his old gang of Meowth and Persian.**

 **Because seriously, for a fanfiction Meowth has amazing attack coverage. Night Slash, Dark Pulse, Hidden Power, Icy Wind, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Zap Cannon, Hypnosis, Dream Eater, Rest, Water Gun, Water Pulse, Bubblebeam, Shock Wave, Gunk Shot, Toxic, Spite, Shadow Ball, Dig, Shadow Claw, Iron Tail, Protect, Agility, Seed Bomb, Petal Dance, Aerial Ace, U-turn, Swift, Uproar, Endure, Flash, Double Team, Mimic, Substitute...and more!**

 **The only thing he's really missing there is a fire type attack, but I could easily have him have hidden power fire.**

 **Anyway, this story would include a few fan favourites returning to join Ash's team, all pokemon from the anime except one.**

 **Meowth from Team Rocket obviously, Charizard because hey, it's me and I love my Charizard. Houndour from the Johto series, the one that Ash ran to the pokemon center carrying it on his back all the way. Pidgeot, his actual Pidgeot that seems to have been forgotten by the producers. Golduck, you know the one Misty went gaga over? The one that was really boastful and flexxed for the pretty ladies? Yeah, that one.**

 **Finally, the sixth pokemon would be a Nidoking. Mostly, I picked it as a shout out to my buddy Straight Elf who writes the epic pokemon story Traveler. If any of you haven't checked that story out, I suggest you do. Quite possibly, the greatest pokemon story on the website barring Angel in The Machine and The Sun Soul.**

 **Anyway, on with this shitty story.**

* * *

Well it looks like you're up first Ash." Dawn commented from beside the young Ranger as they looked up at the screen.

Ash smirked, "Yup, first I'll take this competition by storm and then I can go and get the Oreburgh City Gym Badge." He replied mock arrogantly.

Dawn giggled and gave his arm a playful smack.

Zoey, who was watching them from a few feet away narrowed her eyes and made her way over to them.

"Hey." Ash greeted her.

Zoey's eyes stayed narrowed on him though, her face set in a frown, "Hold on, are you saying you're going to be competing in the Sinnoh League?" The orangette asked.

Ash nodded his head in reply, "Yup." He answered.

"Well than what are you doing competing in Contests?" She asked, she intended it to be harsh, but to Ash it sounded a little childish, like someone who didn't get their way.

"Eh?" Ash and Dawn replied in confusion.

"You obviously don't know the difference between Contest and Gym battles, I'd remember that if I were you." Zoey sniffed out in disdain before turning on her heel and leaving, forgetting her earlier fear in battling one of the Elite when he obviously didn't even know what to do in a Contest, to her at least.

"What was that about?" Dawn asked.

Ash didn't respond right away, instead watching the orange haired girl's retreating back before he answered, his voice somewhat steely, "There's been a rivalry between Coordinators and League Trainers for a long time now, debates over who the better Trainers are can be pretty violent at times, although generally it's the League Trainers who win most of the battles." Ash told her.

Dawn's eyes narrowed slightly at the thought of Ash thinking League Trainers were better than Coordinators just because he was one and was biased. "Oh, and why is that?" She inquired indignantly.

Ash didn't even bother looking at her as he replied, "It's obvious Dawn, while Coordinators can be just as good at battling, the fact of the matter is League Trainers spend more time perfecting their Pokemon's battling prowess; power, speed, attacks and the like, where as Coordinators have to focus a lot of their efforts on making sure the attacks look beautiful. There are exceptions, but for the most part the more beautiful and appealing techniques can't contain as much power as normal attacks." He explained.

"Oh..." Dawn muttered softly in reply, her face flaming in embarrassment because she couldn't see something so obvious and looked towards the ground to hide her face, a bit ashamed that she was almost accusing Ash of something she knew hardly anything about.

Ash nodded and turned to face her, "Your new friend has an attitude problem." He pointed out, brushing off and ignoring her snafu. "She's got skill, I'll give her that but in a real battle I'd crush her easily." He told her his voice holding a trace of cold anger in it.

Dawn blinked, she'd never really heard Ash angry except for when that guy had tried to steal her Pokemon, she reached up and touched his shoulder gently getting him to look her in the eye and notice her curious expression.

Ash seemed to notice what she was confused about and answered for her before she had to ask, "I don't like when people look down on my skills as a Trainer, I've travelled for years, been in so many life threatening situations I've lost count and battled some of the strongest Pokemon and Trainers this world has to offer, some little girl who knows nothing about me trying to look down her snotty little nose at me pisses me off." The angry teen explained.

Ash gave Dawn one last statement before he left to go take his place in the first battle, "If she makes it through to the next round, I'll be sure to put her in her place." He told her, his eyes glacial on a level Dawn had never seen on him.

Dawn bid him goodbye and watched as he left the waiting room to participate in his battle, Ash could be quite scary when he was greatly angered.

But – she admitted to herself in her mind – that was nothing compared to how much of a turn on he was when he was going to show just why nobody walked all over him.

Dawn shook her head sadly, she couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for Zoey. The older girl had no idea she was so deep in a hole of her own making.

* * *

"And now! The moment you've all been waiting for!" Marian cheered alongside the crowd into her microphone, "The second round Battle Tournament! Now give it up for Ash Ketchum and Bradly Goldmen!" She introduced both competitors who were walking onto opposite sides of the battlefield on the stage from different entrances.

As they got to their positions on the field, Bradley - who Ash had now learned was the name of the arrogant older teen leering at Dawn - sneered at him. "I hope you're ready, when I'm done with you that hot little babe of yours will see what a complete loser you are and come running straight to me." He bit out mockingly.

Ash snorted, "Oh, we're doing the pre-fight banter part of the fight now? Okay then." He responded as a glare forced itself into his eyes, "Well then, the only thing I need to say to you, is 1 hit; 1 attack is all that it's going to take for me to walk away the winner of this round." Ash told the arrogant teen, his tone glacier cold.

Bradley glared in rage as his face flamed red, but before he could say anything more, Marian decided to pipe in, "Okay Trainers, let's get started with our first match-up!" She declared as the board above her flickered on, in image each of Ash and Bradley appearing with full yellow circles underneath their faces, "Trainers, choose your Pokemon!"

Both Ash and Bradley released their Pokemon at the same time.

"Larvitar." Ash called calmly as he released his Pokemon from it's Pokeball, not even bothering with throwing it into the air this time and instead releasing it manually.

Unlike Pidgeot or any other Pokemon that had appeared thus far in the Contest, Larvitar did not appear in any grand entrance of fireworks and sparks or the like, instead, Larvitar materialized in front of Ash in a beam of energy and promptly...yawned.

Larvitar was a small dark green reptilian Pokémon with rocky skin. It had an erect spine on top of it's head, angular black streak markings below and on the upper corners of it's red-colored eyes, and several holes or ports on the sides of it's body. It had a scaled red rhombus-shaped belly of sorts, Larvitar had fingerless arms and legs with a single nailed toe and a tail that somewhat resembling a pine cone.

"I choose you, Xatu!" Bradley hollered loudly.

In front of Bradley, floating down after appearing in a flash of white light, a Xatu floated down flapping it's wings as multiple rainbow colored fireworks flared around it and it posed grandiosely.

Ash, who could sometimes hear his Pokemon's thoughts thanks to Mewtwo linking minds with them all so much and sometimes leaving the line open gave a small chuckle as he heard Larvitar's first thoughts upon awakening and getting ready for a battle.

'I'm supposed to battle this fruit-cake?' He thought to himself incredulously, the small green Pokemon's eyes and mouth being agape in shock at the absurdity of the Pokemon in front of him.

Xatu was a green condor-like Pokémon with long, red and black tipped wings that covered most of the Pokémon's front. Underneath its wings were designs that resemble red colored eyes. Along with its main green coloration, Xatu's designs had accentuations of black, yellow, and red. Notably, its head resembled much of its pre-evolution's round body, with the exception of a longer, slightly hooked beak and dual, longer feather crests. Xatu's feet had only two toes, one in front and one in back, all in all the Pokemon Xatu usually looked similar to a totem poll, but it looked like a good Pokemon.

This one in front of them, wasn't. The reason for Larvitar's shock was it's appearance, it didn't have any rare color because of natural causes, it's green feathers had been painted a hot pink... Thus causing the shock of Larvitar.

Larvitar turned and gave Ash an incredulous look, as if to say 'You woke me up for this?'.

Ash chuckled at the look, "Don't worry, we won't have to see it for much longer." He told his Pokemon calmly.

Larvitar sighed in exasperation, but nodded in agreement nonetheless, flashing a small thumbs up with his rocky claws.

Marian, who had been staring at the hot pink Xatu with a sweatdrop, finally shook her head and pulled herself together, "Alright, Trainers! Begin!" She shouted into the microphone in her hand.

Almost instantly Bradley took action, he pumped his fist into the air, "Let's show this loser who's boss! Xatu end it with one Steel Wing!" He shouted loudly.

Flapping it's wings, Xatu took into the air and flew straight towards Larvitar as fast as it could, both wings extended and glowing a bright silvery white.

Ash snorted quietly, he'd only been working with Starly for a week and the little bird Pokemon was already faster than this Xatu.

Crossing his arms Ash patiently waited, not issuing any command, Larvitar trusting him just as he had done since the time of his birth and waited patiently as well, knowing Ash wouldn't leave him high and dry.

When Xatu had passed over the roughly 10 foot mark and closing in, Ash decided to act.

"Iron Defense." He ordered simply.

Larvitar heard him, but gave no indication that he did other than the slight tensing of his arms before the small green dinosaur gave of a sheen from the light reflecting on his now shiny rocky form.

Just in time too, as Xatu finally reached Larvitar that very second and slammed straight into him with it's Steel Wing attack, kicking up a small dust cloud that obscured both Pokemon from view.

"OH YEAH! Clean hit this fight is over!" Bradley crowed in apparent victory before looking up to the board expecting the yellow circle to have turned black for his opponent, only to see that his own yellow circle had apparently lost a quarter of it's own!

"What the hell?" He raged, turning back he stared as the dust cloud died away to reveal both Pokemon, and not only he, but everyone else in the hall were shocked to see the view.

Larvitar, a Rock Type who should be extremely weak to a Steel type attack Like Steel Wing, was standing strong not even flinching, a cold disinterested look in his eyes as he stared at the hot pink Xatu, who's one wing glowing with the power of Steel Wing was straining against Larvitar's shoulder, making no progress at all, it hadn't even budged the small Rock Type one step.

Looking up Bradly saw that Ash; the kid who'd been keeping that little blue haired hottie to himself all day, smirking at him, "W-what the hell?" He stammered in shock.

Ash snorted at him, "It'll take an attack much stronger than that to even faze Larvitar." He stated mockingly, "Now I did tell you that I'd end this battle in one attack wouldn't I?"

"Well then." He started, "Larvitar Hyper Beam." He commanded sharply.

Xatu, who'd been straining all it's power trying to hurt Larvitar with Steel Wing only had a second to look up at the sudden glow, coming face to face with the orange orb forming in Larvitar's now open mouth, before it exploded into a large beam that the dual Flying and Psychic Type Pokemon took point blank in the face, carrying it all the way to the other side of the Hall where it crashed into the wall leaving a decent Xatu body shaped crater in it.

The entire stadium was quiet, not daring to say a thing, until the smoke from the blast cleared down, showing the wall missing a good sized section and Xatu laying crumpled on the floor, completely unconscious covered in bruises and singe marks. The only good that came out of the attack for the poor Flying-Type was that the pink had been burned straight from it's feathers, turning them green again.

They were all broken from their shock – except Ash who had returned Larvitar in a beam of red energy to his Pokeball and turned on his heel to leave the stage – as the board above them suddenly made a whirling noise as Bradly's circle turned fully black before it and the image of him disappeared, replaced by a bigger image of Ash taking up the entire screen with fireworks behind it, the words WINNER, posted above it broadly.

Bradley ran over to his 'strongest Pokemon' and began crying heavily on it's singed body, all the while complaining that the day-care he'd left it in owed him a refund.

Marian sweat-dropped at the scene, "W-well..." She stammered, "It looks like Ash Ketchum has won the round, and in one attack no less! That powerful looking Steel Wing didn't even faze his Larvitar!" The brown haired woman with the microphone recovered.

The crowd was quiet for a moment, before once again erupting to Ash in eardrum shattering cheers and roars.

* * *

Dawn waved Ash over as he entered the waiting room again. When he reached her Dawn gave him a wide smile, "That was amazing, I've never seen a Pokemon like that before." she told him.

Ash gave her a smile in return, "Yeah, you could say Larvitar was my first ever 'mission' as a Pokemon Ranger." He replied, using his hands to make air quotes.

Dawn giggled at his antics, "How so?" The bluenette asked.

"Well, back 2 years ago when I was travelling through the Johto Region, a bunch of poachers attacked his mother, a Tyranitar and captured her, but in the confusion Larvitar who was just an egg at the time was lost in the confusion, and somehow ended up miles away from his home, where a local professor asked me to take the egg back to it's home because the poacher's had failed to capture his mother, and the Tyranitar was going off in a rage at the time because she had lost her child." Ash explained.

Dawn's clear blue eyes narrowed in anger, "How could anyone do something like that?" She asked, aghast.

Ash shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, "I've no idea, there just seems to be a lot of people like that though." He replied.

Dawn sighed, "What cruel people." She spat in disgust.

Ash nodded, deciding to change topic by getting on with his story, "So I took Larvitar with me, and a few days later I ended up holding him personally as he hatched from his egg." He continued.

Dawn awwe'd as expected, Misty had done it at the time of the hatching and May had done it when he told her the story, "Well..." Ash continued again, "He had a bit of a problem trusting any humans besides me and usually took to hiding away in my backpack. Anyway, so it took a few weeks but I finally got him to Mt. Silver after fighting our way through a bunch of other poachers." The young Ranger concluded.

Dawn shook her head with an amused smile on her face, her blue eyes sparkling in mirth, "Wow you just seem to get into one crazy adventure after another." She stated. Dawn paused for a moment before she asked another question that was on her mind, "Have you hatched any other Pokemon from their egg's?" She inquired.

Ash laughed, "Well, I found a Togepi egg once, but Misty, the girl I was travelling with at the time, kind of stole it from me." He replied, he paused as a frown came over his face, "That still kinda annoys me, I had to battle a freaking Aerodactyl before I got it and then she just took it stating that as a 10 year old boy I was too immature to handle an egg, if anything Brock should have gotten it. He is a League Sanctioned Breeder after all and could have looked after Togepi way better than that hot-head." His answer turning into somewhat of a rant, even if it was justified.

Dawn was frankly appalled at what he was saying. Even if he was making light of it that was still theft! Wasn't this Misty girl supposed to be a friend of his? "She sounds like a bit of a bitch." She told him, only to slap her hands over her mouth, her cheeks flaring red as she squeaked. She hadn't meant to say that!

Ash nodded, taking no offense to the slight against a girl a lot of people he assumed had a crush on... Were they idiots? She was a good year older than him, and both her ass and chest were flat as a board, not to mention her violent temper... "Yeah, she could definitely get pretty hard to deal with." He admitted, his lips quirking upwards, there was just no other way to explain the violent ginger; Dawn hit the nail on the head.

He was silent for a moment, before he erupted into chuckles and then loud guffaws, drawing the attention of some people in the waiting room before they turned back to whatever unimportant things they were doing.

Dawn quirked an eyebrow, but couldn't help the few giggles that escaped herself, and for the life of her she couldn't really understand how they got to laughing.

Once they managed to calm themselves down, Ash continued where he left off, "Well, I've hatched a few Pokemon eggs, but the only other Pokemon that I've hatched that belongs to me other than Larvitar is my Donphan back when he was a cute little Phanphy." Ash said.

Dawn smiled, and was about to say something else, when she was cut off by Marian's voice coming from the screen above where they were sitting.

"And now give it up for Zoey and Belinda! Trainers, choose your Pokemon!" Maria's voice rang out from the screen, showing Zoey and Belinda release their Glameow and Nidoqueen respectively.

Ash and Dawn watched as both battled. The battle lasted a good four and a half minutes. Zoey struggled to match a naturally strong Pokemon like Nidoqueen for a small portion of the match, but managed to come out on top after making Glameow use Shadow Claw to catch Nidoqueen's Ice Beam and return it to it's sender, then finished it up with Iron Tail, making Zoey the winner.

Ash nodded when the match finished, that meant he'd be facing Zoey in the next round, as he'd expected.

Her Glameow was pretty powerful he had to admit, but if he had to base it on a level system for their battle between levels 1-100, then Ash would class that Glameow as roughly 20-25, pretty good after only a few months for a girl who focused mostly on beauty, but unluckily for her, despite Larvitar being one of his lesser trained Pokemon, he was a Pokemon he'd trained for over a month before he got him back to his mother, and then Larvitar had trained in the wild with his mother for almost two years before Ash had went to retrieve him, so Ash would estimate Larvitar to be around level 45-50.

Glameow just didn't have the power or experience to match Larvitar, and Zoey just didn't have as much experience as a Trainer or a Coordinator compared to the amount Ash himself had under his belt.

He'd helped May for two whole years when it came to Contests, Max had no Pokemon, and Brock preferred to avoid battle's nowadays, so who else was supposed to help the brunette, especially with how incompetent the girl was for her first few months as a Trainer? He didn't mean that maliciously, Ash himself was more than willing to admit he'd started out as a terrible Trainer.

Ash didn't even bother with a greeting when Zoey returned, instead he opted to watch the next battle, and he couldn't contain the sweat-drop that slid down the back of his head with how it concluded either. Both Trainer's Pokemon had been about even, their Luxio and Hypno neck and neck for most of the fight, but then near the end they both clashed with their most powerful attacks, Thunder and Focus blast.

Both attacks had completely phased through each other, the Focus Blast was pretty small and it tore a small hole in the torrent of electricity that was the Thunder attack, but that was all, and both attacks continued undeterred and hit both respective targets, knocking both out, and knocking both Trainers out of the Contest.

Ash turned to Dawn with a bemused smile, "Well now, all you need to do is beat this guy and you get an automatic bye to the finals." He stated amusedly.

Dawn laughed nervously, her earlier fears coming back full force, "Y-yeah, 'if' I win." She stammered, putting emphasis on the 'if'.

Dawn was surprised when Ash clasped her chin gently with his hand and turned her head to face him, "Hey, no need to worry right?" He asked with a small gentle but most of all calming smile, "Just stick to what I taught you and you'll be fine. You're a good Coordinator, you can do this." He told her.

Dawn nodded not trusting her voice and turned on her heel, hurrying from the room to calm her wildly beating heart and flaming face from the close proximity to Ash's face, so close she could feel his breath upon her lips.

Ash watched the screen intently as Dawn met her short, fat opponent on the battlefield a few short minutes later, she was a bit shaky with nerves but overall she was fine.

"Now, let's see how that training for your legs worked out, shall we?" Ash asked nobody in particular, drawing an odd look from Zoey who was behind him, but he ignored her, and instead focused his attention on Dawn's Pokemon that had appeared from her Pokeball in a wave of glistening pink hearts, her Buneary.

Her opponents choice though amused Ash to no end; what were the odds of a guy like him using a Pokemon like that? He was wearing a biker's jacket with an image of a Gyarados on the back for crying out loud, and his head was shaved completely. The way it shined it the light lead ash to believe the man actually waxed it to look shinier.

* * *

Dawn was confused about this Pokemon, she'd seen them in passing before but never had much familiarity with them. Acting quickly she pulled her pink Pokedex out and brought up the info it had on the Pokemon standing opposite Buneary, "Vileplume, the Flower Pokémon. Using the largest flower petals in the world, it spreads large amounts of pollen that cause allergic reactions." The monotone feminine voice of the Pokedex stated.

Dawn nodded and looked over the other information briskly, quickly noting that it was a Grass and Poison Type Pokemon as well as being fully evolved before closing her Pokedex and slipping it into her dress pocket again.

Vileplume had a Prussian blue-colored, bipedal body with a large yellow spotted red flower atop it's head, with short stubby feet and arms.

She put it away none to soon as the cueball, Mark or whatever his name was, she was just going to call him Cueball though, leapt into action figuratively. "Vileplume use Stun Spore!" He shouted.

Shaking the petal's on it's head, Vileplume unleashed an orange spore that flew through the air towards Buneary.

Luckily, Ash had warned Dawn about the attack because of how versatile it could be and told her of a few ways to counter, "Buneary, freeze it over with Ice Beam an then break the ice with Dizzy Punch!" The bluenette ordered quickly.

Buneary opened her mouth and unleashed a thin ice blue beam of energy that met the Stun Spore halfway and completely froze it over into a large sheet of ice.

The small rabbit-like Normal-Type Pokemon followed this up by streaking towards the ice sheet, both ears glowing white as Buneary pummelled the ice apart with Dizzy Punch, sending chunks of ice careening towards Vileplume who couldn't dodge fast enough because of how awkward it's body was.

Vileplume cried out in pain as the improved Ice-Type attack struck it over and over again, each attack as Super Effective as the last and dealing quite a bit of damage.

Up above on the screen, Cueball's circle lost a bit of yellow that was replaced by black from his attack being countered, and then his circle lost almost another quarter straight away from his own attack being used against Vileplume and dealing loads of damage.

"And Buneary freezes that Stun Spore before sending it right back!" Marian commented excitedly.

Cueball growled audibly as the dual Grass and Poison-Type pulled itself to it's feet shakily, "Vileplume Magical Leaf now!" He shouted angrily at his Pokemon.

Vileplume cried it's name, accepting the order as it shook it's large flowered head again, ejecting multiple small green sickles of energy, similar in shape to leaves that floated mid-air for a moment before launching rapidly towards Buneary, who was halfway across the battlefield from when she used the frozen Stun Spore.

Dawn, seeing the attack, shot into action herself, "Buneary, leap over it with Bounce!" She ordered smartly.

Buneary nodded and bounced on it's padded feet, launching herself flying into the air, a good thirty feet above Vileplume.

Cueball saw what was about to happen the second Buneary started to fall from the air towards Vileplume and saw no way to dodge with how slow Vileplume was, so..."Vileplume, power up." He commanded sharply.

Vileplume nodded, heeding his orders and stood perfectly still as it began to rapidly absorbs flecks of solar energy form the sun straight into the opening of it's flower on it's head.

Seconds later, Buneary crashed straight down on it's head with a Super Effective and powerful – from all the weighted jumping training forced upon her by Ash – Bounce attack.

Vileplume cried out loudly as it impacted the ground of the battlefield, Dawn saw this and pressed her advantage, "Barrage it with Dizzy Punch Buneary!" She cried out excitedly.

Buneary obeyed jumped straight on top of Vileplum's flower covered head and began pounding straight down with Dizzy Punch after Dizzy Punch, glowing white ears and all.

Vileplume cried out in pain after every strike, Cueball's points whittling away more and more after each hit. Luckily for him repeated attacks like what Buneary were doing had penalties attached to them, make them worth far less points then a single well timed attack of the same nature, but he was still in serious danger of losing.

A few moments later, when his score was just below a quarter left, Cueball acted, "Launch Solar-Beam now!" He ordered in a rush.

Dawn finally saw what her opponent had been waiting on – the circle in the middle of Vileplume's flower glowing a bright white – but was too late to react as a large beam of energy erupted straight from the flower, catching Buneary point blank and launching the small bunny Pokemon flying high into the air with a loud wail of pain.

Dawn cringed at the hit, worried greatly for Buneary, but sighed in relief as she saw Buneary struggle in mid-air, managing to right herself when she reached the apex of her impromptu flight.

Dawn smirked after a moment, "Spin and use Ice Beam!" She shouted up to her singed Pokemon.

Buneary obeyed and began spinning to face towards Vileplume on the battlefield as she began her descent.

A few feet later she opened her mouth and fired a concentrated ice blue beam of energy.

Cueball gaped at the recovery speed – having no prior knowledge to the hell Ash called training that he'd put Dawn's Pokemon through, mainly Ursaring though – and called out to Vileplume, "Use Protect!" He shouted to his Pokemon frantically.

Vileplume managed to follow through on his command as a small green glowing orb surrounded it's body, protecting it from harm.

Sadly it was all for naught.

The light blue energy of the Ice Beam hit the ground around Vileplume and it's shield, before rotating around it as Buneary spun in mid-air, and within a few minutes, a spiral tipped triangle of ice had formed around Vileplume and it's shield, completely encasing it in ice.

Buneary landed on the ground in front of the ice spiral nimbly, although she winced slightly from the impact of her burned foot from the Solar-Beam touching the ground.

With that, the last of Cueball's yellow points whittled away. Seeing this as she glanced over to see how much her opponent had lost, Dawn erupted into a loud cheer at the same time as the crowd, just in time for Buneary to bounce over quickly and leap into the beautiful bluenette's arms.

Spinning Buneary in her arms, Dawn couldn't help her happy squeal, "We won! We won our first battle!" She cheered excitedly.

She didn't even bother paying attention to Marian, who was announcing her as the winner, instead she opted for returning Buneary quickly and almost sprinted from the battlefield, intent on seeing Ash before he battled Zoey.

* * *

Dawn met Ash, just a few steps outside of the waiting room, Zoey having already left to go through the opposite entrance to get to the battle field.

Dawn cheered excitedly as she saw him and literally flying glomped him.

Ash laughed as he caught her, spinning her around to prevent being bowled over. "You did great! A little stiff, and you could have kept a better eye out for that Solar-Beam, but nothing more experience won't help with." He congratulated her.

Dawn smiled brightly as she pulled back and looked him in the eye, "Thanks!" She chirped back perkily, "Although, is there anything I should improve on?" She asked a second later.

Ash nodded reluctantly, not overly enthused to bring down her good mood with critiques but realizing this would help in the long run. "The power of Ice Beam for one with Buneary, but we'll work on that later when we're done with the Contest today. The rest is simply your own inexperience, which we'll work on too." He told her, "I have to go have my battle with Zoey now." He continued, a somewhat feral grin overcoming his features.

Dawn shuddered slightly at the smile, but hugged him tightly nonetheless and pecked him on the cheek, "Good luck~!" She singsonged as she turned and skipped into the Waiting Room happily.

Ash watched her go for a moment, chuckling amusedly.

* * *

Out on the battlefield, Ash took his position on the opposite side from Zoey, taking Larvitar's Pokeball in hand as he waited for Marian to start the battle.

"Trainers send out your Pokemon!" Marian finally called out.

Smirking, Ash let Larvitar loose the exact same way he had before, leisurely; his Pokemon mirroring the mood and giving a yawn.

Glameow being released in a spiral of pink confetti.

Ash stayed silent, Larvitar following suit.

He'd analysed Zoey's battle style in her previous battle, she waited for her opponents to attack and countered them, using their own attacks against them for beautiful effects, focusing more on making her opponent lose points than damaging the opposing Pokemon.

Basically, Ash deduced, she was using a very basic form of his own battle strategy. Unluckily for her, he knew the weaknesses of his own battle style, especially in a timed battle like this.

After thirty seconds of doing nothing, the crowd started getting antsy and Zoey's patience with him finally ran thin, "Why won't you attack?" She raged.

Ash smirked at her as he crossed his arms, "I can win this battle any time I want, I was just hoping for you to amuse me a little before I did." He boasted, his voice holding nothing but arrogance, a ploy he was sure would work.

And he was right.

Instantly, Zoey went red in the face, "Glameow Iron Tail!" She cried out angrily.

Glameow blurred forward in a burst of pure speed, reaching Larvitar in a blink.

Ash only smirked as he issued his own command, "Take it with Iron Defense."

Larvitar, just like his previous battle shined briefly in the sun as Iron Defense took effect, just in time for Glameow's tail to strike dead center on Larvitar's forehead, the only tell-tale sign of it actually being hit was the small clenching at the corners of his eyes.

Zoey almost screamed in anger, her face red at the humiliation of it all, "Just keep hitting it with Shadow Claw!" She ordered in a loud shout.

Glameow gave a loud 'nyaah!' in reply before both paws were covered in black shadow claws, and the cat Pokemon began to hack and stab at Larvitar.

Only the small green dinosaur Pokemon didn't flinch once and just stood there, taking hit after hit, looking as if he was taking no damage at all.

All the while, Glameow was losing energy rapidly from the overuse of attacks and while Ash's score was dropping little by little, Zoey's had already dropped by more than a third by the time Glameow jumped back a safe distance to take a breather.

Ash was bored from this though and decided to take it up a notch, Larvitar only needed one little push, "Screech." He ordered simply.

Larvitar nodded and opened his small mouth, and from that small mouth blasting a large torrent of sound waves that ripped across the field towards Glameow at break neck speeds.

Zoey's eyes widened at the force behind the attack, an attack that wasn't even supposed to be used offensively! "Glameow, use your tail and jump!" She ordered frantically.

Glameow obeyed and shaped it's tail like a spring underneath it before launching itself, spinning upwards into the air, just in time for the Screech attack to rip right through it's previous position, tearing up the field and dying out.

Sadly they weren't out of the frying pan yet.

"Dark Pulse." Was Ash's next command.

Larvitar stuck both small claws together before punching them forward, launching a beam of purple and black interlocking circles from the insides of its claws at the mid-air Glameow.

Glameow couldn't react quick enough in mid-air and was struck in the chest harshly by the powerful Dark-Type attack, forcing it to the ground with a loud cry of pain.

Thankfully for Zoey, her Glameow was quite strong and resistant as such, so it managed to force itself up on shaky legs within a few moments.

Zoey grinned and was about to issue another attack for Glameow when Ash's calm voice interrupted her, "Earthquake."

Too late for Zoey or Glameow to react, Larvitar lifted a small green foot before stomping hard on the field floor, causing the whole hall to shake frantically; the shaking causing Glameow to lose it's footing, just in time for Ash's next command.

"Hyper Beam." Ash commanded sharply.

Larvitar had formed an orange orb in his mouth as quickly as it could form it and fired it in the form of a large beam straight towards Glameow.

Luck seemed to be in Zoey and Glameows favor though. When the Hyper Beam was a few feet from connecting, the shaking of the Earthquake upturned a few rocks that forced Glameow down a few inches, just enough to escape the Hyper Beam's full brunt of power.

Although not entirely; Glameow cried out in pain as some of the fur on it's back was completely burned away from the power behind the attack.

And then, Zoey saw something that she just couldn't believe. She'd been having enough trouble for a lifetime with the Larvitar, but now the small green dinosaur Pokemon was glowing a bright white as he increased in size slightly and changed shape.

The light dying down to show Larvitar's new form.

"Pupitar!" He cried out the name of his new form.

Pupitar was a somewhat large Pokémon that was encased inside a thick shell made of grayish-blue rock. It had several spikes and holes for eyes and what appeared to be eyebrows above them.

Then, Ash did something that was truly astonishing, he held up the Pokeball in his hand and returned Pupitar in a beam of red energy.

Then he gave a small wave, before turning and walking away, planning on joining the audience.

"W-what are you doing?" Marian asked in shock.

Ash turned and quirked an eyebrow at her, "What does it look like I'm doing? I forfeit and I'm going to go take my place in the audience." He replied as if she was an idiot.

"Why?" It was Zoey this time who asked, her voice somewhat hollow.

Ash snorted, "I really hate to say it like this, it makes me sound really arrogant, but it's just not fair for me to be in this competition. I'm leagues ahead of everyone here in experience and my Pokemon are much higher level; I really only took part in this contest to give Pupitar that little needed push to evolve." He replied.

"That's it? You completely humiliated me and you expect me to take a hand-out like this?" Zoey ground out, her voice cold with anger.

Ash shrugged, "Take it as you like, I just want someone good enough to push Dawn to do her best, the harder the challenges closer to her level, the faster she becomes stronger as a Trainer, and Coordinator." He replied shortly, "Don't think of it as a handout, I shouldn't have entered this in the first place, facing me is like facing one of the Elite four, if you'll forgive the arrogance again, and nobody here has that kind of skill, talent or Pokemon needed to face a Trainer like me." He continued as he turned and walked away.

Zoey watched him go, before turning her head and looking at the screen above her, she was shocked to see that her circle only had the barest minimum of yellow left, 'He planned that all along! He crushed me as if I were nothing! He did all that to put me in my place for my comments earlier about him not knowing anything about Contests, when in fact he outclassed me so badly it isn't even funny.' Her thoughts raged as she left the stage to treat Glameow, Marian having giving her a good twenty-five minutes to fix her up with potions and the like before she faced Dawn in the finals.

* * *

Dawn sweatdropped as she watched Ash walk up into the audience and take a seat, striking up a one-sided conversation with the still dumbfounded man he'd taken a seat next to. "I should have expected this, I really should have since he seems quite insistent on being fair in official matches." She muttered to herself as she facepalmed.

Again the move was just so... Ash, she couldn't just help but find it amusing and cute.

Standing up, Dawn shook her head and began making her way to the battlefield; it wouldn't be long before Zoey would be back and they'd battle to see who took the win in the final match.

* * *

"Start!" Marian shouted twenty minutes later.

Dawn started things off instantly, ordering Buneary to use Dizzy Punch.

Zoey was already starting her own attack though, one that worked just as well for defense. "Block it with Shadow Claw!" The orange haired girl ordered.

Buneary's punch was blocked perfectly by the ethereally glowing paw of Glameow. Dawn glanced at her yellow circle, biting her lip as she noticed her score drop. "Get out of there, use Bounce!" Dawn cried, not so confident in her Pokemon's ability in a straight up fight.

Buneary shot straight up using Bounce, but without a word from her Trainer Glameow followed right behind the bunny Pokemon using it's tail like a spring, soaring above Buneary and using Fury Swipes on order from Zoey followed by a vicious Iron Tail. Thankfully for Dawn's Pokemon, the blue haired Coordinator was able to quickly order Buneary to block it with her ears, taking Zoey's points this time.

Glameow didn't waste a second once both Pokemon landed, spinning around and swing it's tail hard at Buneary, who barely managed to cartwheel backwards to avoid the whip-like attack. Dawn panicked and shouted an order before she noticed Buneary was safe, and the bunny Pokemon fired off a half-formed and hurried Ice Beam. Glameow easily dodged the attack by rolling to the side.

Luck was in Dawn's favour, and the Ice Beam's hastily aimed trajectory came in handy when it hit the ground right below the feline Pokemon, causing it to slide.

Dawn's eyes widened, seeing her chance, "Use Bounce and land on it's back!" She barked.

Buneary's small legs tensed before she launched herself up in the air. Glameow barely got her feet below her before Buneary landed on her back hard, sending her slamming into the cold, unforgiving ice again. "Keep it up Buneary!" Dawn cried.

Zoey bit her lip as Buneary started Bouncing up and down on her Pokemon's back, her deceptively weak legs causing Glameow to cry out in pain every time the bunny Pokemon landing on the small of it's back. Buneary couldn't jump very high without giving Glameow a chance to move, but that didn't mean much considering how hard Dawn had made her work on completely mastering the attack.

The second Glameow started getting it's footing, despite the vicious assault on her back, Dawn snapped, "Dizzy Punch!"

Zoey opened her mouth before the attack had even charged, "Shadow Claw, smash the ice!" She cried desperately. Buneary was too fast though, and by the time she finished her command her ears was charged with energy and came down on Glameow's skull.

To her credit, not even a full second later a Shadow Claw had slammed into the ground beneath her, throwing Buneary off her. Buneary, in the middle of another Dizzy Punch, was caught flat-footed and the normally agile Pokemon hit the ground hard on her back and rolled.

"Hit the ice again, Shadow Claw!" Zoey commanded. Glameow reared back, it's right paw once more covered in energy before it lurched forward. The angle of the attack sent icy shards screaming towards Buneary, who managed to dodge a portion of them, but could only throw up her arms and take the ones she couldn't. The kinetic force caused her to stumble back, which Glameow took advantage of as she blurred forward. Glameow's now steel tail glinted in the light of the sun before it impacted the smaller Pokemon and sent it flying.

"Buneary!" Dawn cried, concerned for her Pokemon, only for her shout to be drowned out by the buzzer, signifying the end of the round.

Everyone looked up, and Dawn's heart dropped as she saw that her circle had slightly less yellow left than Zoey's, meaning her opponent had narrowly taken the win.

Sighing sadly, Dawn returned Buneary in a beam of red energy before turning on her heel and leaving briskly, tears beginning to leak from her eyes.

She couldn't help it, all the time Ash had put into making sure she was good and ready and she couldn't even win one stupid little Contest; one that he could have won with both his and his Pokemon blindfolded.

* * *

Ash, up in his seat in the audience, ignored Zoey receiving her the Jubilife Contest ribbon and instead opted for getting up and walking as quick as he could through the cheering crowd, intent on following Dawn.

* * *

Ash finally caught up with her near the waiting room again, she was rubbing her weepy deep blue eyes as she walked quickly down the hall.

"Dawn!" He called out worriedly.

Daw's response was to stiffen slightly before picking up her pace and walking faster.

Sighing Ash ran up behind her and grabbed her by the shoulder, pushing her gently up against the wall and pinning her there with both arms over her shoulders, his face level with hers.

"What's wrong?" He asked his tone betraying his worry.

Dawn swallowed thickly as thick pearly tears ran from her eyes, "I-I..." She stammered before wailing a little louder, "I'm a complete and utter failure, even after you taught me I still couldn't win a stupid Contest!"

Ash couldn't help it, he snorted, gaining a look from Dawn, her wailing stopping for the moment.

"You know..." He started, his tone amused. "In my first official Gym battle, me and Pikachu didn't even land a single blow before he was taken out. The entire battle must have lasted 20 seconds, and that's being generous." He told her.

Dawn's crying stopped completely as she stared at him gob-smacked, "That's got to be a lie." she replied disbelievingly.

Ash shook his head in the negative.

Dawn couldn't hide her shock, "But-but you're so good now! You could take on the Elite Four!" She shouted loudly.

Ash laughed, "Did you think I just started out this good?" He asked before shaking his head, "No, I was a terrible Trainer at first. In fact, you're several times better than I was when I just started. I got this good through trial and error, years of hard work, a few good friends, and loads upon loads of failures."

Dawn sighed after a moment, "I bet I look like a right mess don't I?" she asked.

Ash again shook his head in the negative, "No, you always look great to me, even when you have that crazy bed-head of yours." He replied, his voice thick with emotion.

Dawn swallowed loudly, "W-what?" She stammered out, her face flaming red and her heart pounding in her chest as if it was going to tear straight through her breast.

Ash licked his lips to moisten the thin red lines, "In fact, since the day I met you I've been wanting to do this, but couldn't bring myself to do it until just now." He stated evenly.

With that, he shocked Dawn, who's eyes went wide with shock, hope and a little bit of lust as he slipped one hand around her waist and threaded the other through her wavy blue hair and brought his face gently to hers as he pressed his lips against hers, his tongue slipping through the partings in both his own lips and her own pouty pink lips, meeting and wrapping around her own tongue in her mouth.

Dawn couldn't help but moan into his mouth as Ash's tongue massaged her own and she shared a deep passionate opened mouth kiss with the boy she'd practically crushed on since the moment she met him.

Suddenly, losing a contest seemed to matter about as much as dust in the wind to her now as she became lost in the moment.

* * *

 **Omake**

 **Written By: Slicerness**

 **Idea By: 0 Jordinio 0, Slicerness**

 **Pinpointing The Very Second Ash Ketchum's Balls Dropped**

Ash stared at May as she stepped out of the changing room. His eyes sliding up and down in their sockets as they followed her breasts when she walked towards the pool they were at. Ash himself was standing a few feet back from the edge of the pool itself next to Drew and Brock. He was going to jump in, but then he saw May and his brain just seemed to shrivel up and another part of him, lower, swelled and began doing his thinking for him.

"What are those things on May's chest?" Drew asked incredulously next to Ash. "They weren't there before. Why are those hideous things there?!" He started freaking out.

*Crack!*

Ash stared at his fist curiously as Drew dropped like a bag of rocks. Curious, he hadn't meant to do that. It's like his hand just shot out and acted of it's own accord.

He jumped lightly as he felt Brock place a hand on his shoulder. "Ash, I've never been prouder to call you my best friend and little brother figure." The dark skinned Pokemon Breeder said with the utmost passion, tears flowing from his eyes. "You're becoming a man! Recognizing the best parts of women and stopping the haters of large breasts before they can become an issue. I would hug you right now, but considering the state we're both in I'm sure that violates the Code."

Ash had no idea what Brock was talking about, but went back to watching May's chest anyway.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

After congratulating Zoey on her winning the Jubilife City Contest, Ash and Dawn set out for Oreburgh City that night arm in arm.

At the moment, the day right after leaving Jubilife City Dawn had both backpacks on her back as Ash carried her on his very own back, demonstrating quite a lot of strength. Dawn wasn't sure but she knew that the combined weight of her wearing both their backpacks, her with her arms wrapped around his neck and him hooking his arms under her knee's, and then Pikachu riding atop his shoulder weighed quite alot, and yet Ash was walking casually, showing no strain at all. Those muscles of his weren't just for show.

"No, I'm serious Pikachu really did hate me when I first stared my journey with him." Ash told her with a laugh.

Dawn hung her head over his shoulder to get a look at his face, "No way, I can't believe that, if it weren't for the fact that you're both from different species I'd say you were brothers." The bluenette replied with a giggle as Ash carried her along a forest path.

Ash chuckled in amusement, "Yeah, it wasn't until I literally risked my life for the ketchup addict that we started getting along." The young amber eyed ranger continued.

Dawn shook her head in amusement as she leaned closer and kissed his cheek.

Ash raised an eyebrow as he turned his head to look at her as he walked, "What was that for?" He asked curiously.

Dawn just smiled at him, "Nothing really." She admitted, "But do I need a reason? Isn't it my right as your girlfriend to kiss you and feel you up whenever I feel like it?" She asked in a mischievous voice, her hands groping his solid shoulders.

Ash snorted as he turned his attention back to the path they were walking along – he was walking along – as he replied, "You were a lot more shy with me before I asked you to be my girlfriend." He pointed out.

Dawn surprised him by leaning down slightly on the opposite shoulder from where Pikachu was perched and Licked - Licked! - the tip of his ear, "Well, I was mostly scared because I didn't know if you would like me this way." She whispered, the combination of her licking the tip of his ear with her soft tongue, and her hot breath washing over his ear making him shiver slightly in pleasure.

Ash snorted for a second time, although there was a small red hue on his cheeks, "Yes, I would absolutely hate and instantly turn down the offer to date a beautiful girl like you, who not only is she able talk with me properly but is also really fun to be around. Yes, the thought fills me with the utmost disgust, the mere mental picture of being on a date with you makes me green." He shot back, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Dawn 'hmm'd thoughtfully at him, "Well you did tell me you met quite a lot of beautiful girls in your travels, and you did say that there was chemistry between you and May." She pointed out, "I'm not even gonna mention this Misty girl because from your own words 'she's more of a boy than a girl'. Pretty sure that makes her ineligible to be classed as competition." Dawn quoted.

Ash nodded, seeing his girlfriend's points. He wasn't sure if she was actually feeling self conscious or not, but just in case... "Well, that is true, I have met alot of beautiful girls over the years, but, almost all of them I only knew for a few days before I continued on, and May? ...Well, I will admit I was physically attracted to her, but we never really... clicked." He tried to explain. "Out personalities clashed at times and as odd as it sounds she was more like a pair of boobs than person sometimes. Honestly, the girl's only a few months older than you yet she's got, what, D-cups? It didn't help that she had these moments where it's like she just turned her brain off. It was a major turn off. We were friends, but with her... slow moments, that's as far as I could ever see us being." Ash trailed off.

Dawn raised an eyebrow at the comments on May's breasts as she giddily archived his words in the back of her mind. "So you don't like big breasts?" She inquired curiously.

Ash chuckled, quietly at first but louder and louder until he ran out of air. He looked back at her and gave her a look like she a crazy person, "Are you kidding? I'm a teenage boy, of course I love big breasts. May was just rather flighty at times, and those times were more often than not the times you could actually tear your eyes away from the pair of cantaloupes she had attached to her chest." His voice sounding oddly passionate.

Dawn just assumed it was an instinct all straight males were ingrained with. Or at least the one's Ash was born with; not like she had experience talking about breasts with men.

Dawn's eyes suddenly gained a mischievous glint as she leaned down and pressed her own considerable bust into the back of Ash's neck, the soft mounds like cushions against his back, "What about my breasts, what do you think of them?" She asked in a breathy whisper.

Ash grinned shakily as he swallowed loudly, "A-and what size would they be?" He stammered slightly, but recovered admirably.

"Mine are 32C's boyfriend of mine. At least that's what my bra says... not that you could confirm that right now." Dawn practically purred into his ear. And it was true, she wasn't exxagerating about her bust size; Dawn was one of those girls who gained their curves early, and even at only 13 years of age she was, to be crude, ball-droppingly gorgeous.

Ash stumbled slightly but caught himself. He paused for a moment to gather his confidence to make sure he didn't stutter, "Well... They feel great pressing against me, I can tell you that for sure." He replied, grinning broadly with more confidence than he actually felt; he actually felt kind of light-headed.

Light headed and turned-on that is.

Ash could practically feel her blush as she tightened her grip around his neck, the young amber eyed Ranger grinned mentally, confirming this round as his victory. He'd discovered that Dawn was good with the teasing but she wasn't very capable of taking it very well without blushing up a storm.

They'd talked for a good hour – sharing several kisses, some innocent while others leaned towards intense like their first – before Ash had worked up the nerve fully to lay out some very logical facts; he liked her, she liked him - or he thought so at least at the time - she was incredibly beautiful and they should become a couple.

It was as easy as that. Simple, even, just the way Ash liked things. Dawn liked fashion but she wasn't so overwhelming with her interest of it compared to Misty and May, who practically butted heads with him every-time he pointed out to both of them that he didn't enjoy shopping like they did.

Dawn just took it in stride, she had her likes, he had his, it was that simple. Ash had found that he was subconsciously doing little things on his own that May had nagged about and Misty had demanded him to do, and yet with Dawn he didn't mind. It was like he accepted it as a sort of duty as the male travelling companion.

Dawn was much easier for him to understand than any other girl he'd met, he'd only known her for almost two weeks, yet he and the blue haired beauty were closer than he ever was with his other female friends, travelling companions or not.

In fact, just this morning he'd done something he'd never done with Misty or May in all the years he'd knew them.

After serving breakfast and telling Dawn what to work on with her Pokemon's training, he'd set his own Pokemon to their own Training and then sat and watched her for over an hour, her hair gently swaying in the wind as she gazed upon her Pokemon with determination to get better, ordering them around easily and taking to the Training of Pokemon like a fish to water.

While she made a way better protégée than May ever did, because she had quite a bit of natural talent that he just had to bring out, she was also so much more to him.

She caught his interest in ways no girl ever had before, he'd had crushes before, hell his first crush was on that Giselle girl back in his Kanto journey, but Dawn made him feel like his heart was going to leap out of his throat almost every time she spoke.

It was then Ash realized that his feeling may be much deeper than just a simple crush, and Ash for the life of him couldn't care less.

Back in the present Ash was about to take another step when something happened, something that hadn't happened since he met Lucario all those months ago.

He felt his Aura jolt inside of his veins, the power of it rushing through him and pounding in his ears in the familiar feeling of sensing another aura sensitive being near him.

He hadn't learned much from his very brief time with Lucario, he'd learned to sense quite well in his own opinion, nowhere near Lucario's mastery; the jackal Pokemon could navigate anytime he wished with his _eyes closed_ for crying out loud, but Ash was proficient enough to sense another strong Aura user around him.

And thanks to Mewtwo he was getting better and better at hearing his Pokemon's thoughts and feelings with his Aura everyday.

Sadly, Lucario hadn't had the time to teach him – as promised – before he passed on the basics of utilizing Aura to form protective barriers or an offensive attack like the Aura Sphere.

Dawn felt Ash stop and tense up beneath her and jumped off of his back worriedly, "Ash, what's wrong?" She asked her tone belaying her worry.

Ash didn't answer her, instead he turned on guard Pikachu tensing on his shoulder and looked to a bush to his right.

Only to be shocked as a small injured Pokemon stumbled from the green foliage clutching it's wounded arm.

Ash's eyes widened, "A Riolu!" He blurted out in shock, and why wouldn't he? They were extremely rare Pokemon, the pre-evolution of Lucario!

Dawn dropped the bags to the ground and pulled out her pink Pokedex, "What's a Riolu?" She asked curiously as she hit the scan button.

" _R_ _iolu, the Emanation Pokémon. When sad or scared, Riolu's Aura becomes stronger as a way of signalling its allies. This Riolu is Male and has the ability Steadfast. Currently, this Riolu knows the attacks Bullet Punch, Shadow Claw, Force Palm and Aura Sphere._ " The feminine monotone voice of the Pokedex stated aloud before Dawn put it away.

Riolu was a small, blue, jackel-like Pokémon. Its legs and torso were colored black and it's tail was blue. Around it's neck was a muted yellow collar. There were rounded bumps on the backs of Riolu's forepaws, which could have been the beginnings of the spikes on a Lucario's forepaws. Riolu had a black "mask" and red eyes. Like Lucario, Riolu stood on its toes instead of its entire foot, ready to jump or move at a moment's notice.

Ash raised a hand to Dawn and beckoned her off a bit, "Stay back a bit Dawn, Riolu's scared of something, I can feel it. Aura users can be pretty powerful when they're backed into a corner." He told her softly.

Dawn nodded, she was concerned but followed Ash's advice because he sounded like he kew what he was talking about. She took a few slow steps back.

Ash crouched slightly down to eye level with the Riolu and let Pikachu jump off as he took a few slow steps forward towards the scared Fighting type.

"Hey there..." He started off slowly and softly, "I'm Ash, I can sense your Aura and can tell that you're scared, so why don't you just calm down a bit and let me help you with that wound?" Ash asked soothingly as he took a few more crouched steps towards Riolu.

When Ash was but a few feet from Riolu his hand suddenly snapped up, palm facing Ash as he charged a small blue sphere of energy in it's palm. He quickly his thrust it's paw outwards sending the fully formed – though miniature compared to Lucario's – Aura Sphere towards Ash.

"Ash!" Dawn screamed to him in concern when she saw the attack fly at him.

Everyone in the small clearing was surprised, bar Ash and Pikachu that is, when Ash's hand suddenly snapped up and he backhanded the Aura Sphere flying into the air and into the horizon.

Ash gave Riolu a smirk as he lowered his slightly singed hand, "Now now, no need attack me I only want to help." He chastised lightly as he took a few more steps forward, turning his head he gave his attention to Dawn, "Can you get me some Super-Potion from my bag, a bandage and a stilt please?" He asked her.

Dawn nodded and bent down to begin rummaging through his backpack.

While Ash slowly took a few more steps towards Riolu he was conversing with Mewtwo in his head, _'Look into it's head and tell me what it's scared of.'_ He ordered lightly.

Mewtwo was silent for a few moments before responding, ' _This Riolu is rather like me, it was_ _stolen as an egg and has been experimented on to be made into a strong Pokemon by many scientists since it was born, such is the reason why it can use Aura Sphere already in this form, it managed to escape just over two weeks ago, but some kind of Pokemon Hunter has been hired to retrieve Riolu and it has been on the run since then.'_ Mewtwo explained to him in his mind, his voice sounding cold, brimming with barely suppressed rage.

Ash couldn't blame him, ever since his incident with Giovanni, Mewtwo had been strongly against anything that resorted to forcefully experimenting on Pokemon to make them stronger and bend their will to the captors.

Dawn gently set down the needed items Ash had requested before stepping back with Pikachu again.

Ash picked up the orange bottle containing the Super-Potion and gently motioned for Riolu to come, doing the best he could to make his aura seem soothing and caring.

After a few moments, Riolu took a few hesitant steps towards Ash before stumbling into his arms.

Ash smiled gently down at the jackel Pokemon as he lifted the Super Potion up, "Now this is going to sting a bit, but only for a second and then you'll feel much better." He told Riolu kindly.

Spraying the potion on the wound on Riolu's arm, Riolu grimaced slightly in pain before it faded and the small Aura user relaxed into Ash's arms.

Smiling this time in relief Ash used both hands now to gently grasp the stilt and slide it up against Riolu's arm before tying it still with the bandage.

He stood the small Aura user up and gave it a small smile, "Hey Riolu, test your arm out for me will you?" He asked softly.

Riolu nodded, soothed by his Aura Ash assumed, as well as the knowledge that Ash wasn't this 'hunter' and flexed his arm up, it was a bit stiff thanks to the splint but other than that it looked okay.

Smile stretching into a grin Ash stood up from his crouched position, "Well now that that's taken care of, why don't you let me me treat you to some breakfast?" The young Ranger inquired.

Riolu nodded and followed behind him towards Dawn, Pikachu and the backpacks as Ash turned on his heels and began walking.

Dawn blinked at how easily Ash handled the situation, "Wow, I'll say it again; you really know how to handle Pokemon." She told him with a serene smile stretching her lips.

Ash chuckled, scratching his cheek as he felt a burst of pride. He bent down and removed a bowl from his backpack and began filling it with Oran Berries, he sadly didn't have a recipe of food made especially for Riolu so he'd have to settle with this, "I told you before I learned most of it through experience and from Brock, but it helped that Riolu was an Aura user and I started learning to use my own Aura a few months back." He replied, smiling broadly.

Dawn's eyebrows raised in both curiosity and surprise. "Aura as in an Aura Guardian?" She asked in disbelief.

Ash shook his head, "I only know the basics, and even then not all of them, it was a Lucario, the evolved form of Riolu here, that taught me, but I only knew him for a few days before he had to leave so it didn't get to teach me much other than using it to sense stuff." He explained as he gestured to Riolu, who was too busy eating the blue Oran berries happily to pay attention to their conversation, though Ash could tell with the way the black tubes on the back of his head extended slightly that Riolu was in fact paying attention to their Aura, making sure that Ash was indeed just trying to help and that Dawn wasn't a threat.

Warning bells suddenly started blaring in all of Ash's senses just as Mewtwo's voice thundered in his ears, ' _From above! I sense a being with malicious intent!_ ' The clone Pokemon warned.

Ash whirled around startling the others and looked into the air, catching sight of a large four winged purple bat flapping it's wings towards them, generating and launching two glowing blue sickles of bladed energy at them.

Acting quickly, Ash palmed one of the six Pokeballs that he had on him that held Pokemon inside from his belt and released the Pokemon inside quickly, "Starly, repel that Air Cutter attack with Whirlwind!" He called out urgently.

From the Pokeball, Starly appeared flying mid-air and began to flap his wings harshly generating a heavy wind that blew the sickles of energy away off coarse and into a tree.

Not even a second later did Ash follow up, "Okay Starly, take that Crobat down with Brave Bird!" He ordered quickly.

Starly cried in agreement and blazed into the air as fast as his small body could, his feathered body becoming enshrouded in flames before they dyed down into a powerful blue aura that pulsed with energy.

The Crobat in the air cried out in alarm, but was too slow in attempting to dodge and Starly ploughed straight into it and sending it careening off into the forest below from the powerful attack.

Starly straightened out mid-air, flinching slightly from the recoil of using Brave Bird, and that's when he started to glow a bright white.

Down below Ash grinned as he saw Starly expand in size, his wingspan becoming lager and the flick of hair on his forehead becoming longer, and when the glow dyed down, in Starly's place was a freshly evolved Staravia.

' _Ash there is a fairly powerful presence closing in on you._ ' Mewtwo warned in his head and the young trainer grimaced.

Fairly powerful to Mewtwo meant dangerous threat to any Pokemon that wasn't on his level.

Thinking quickly, Ash returned Staravia to his Pokeball quickly before grabbing Turtwig and Haunter's Pokeballs.

Turning around he faced Dawn and held them out to her, "Here, keep these three with you in case you go up against Pokemon your own can't handle." He told his girlfriend as he pushed them into her hands.

"Ash, what are you doing?" She asked in concern.

Ash leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the lips before pulling back, "Something's coming this way and it's pretty powerful." Ash explained, he paused a moment as a thoughtful frown came over his face before reaching up and pulling the silver chain with Mewtwo's Pokeball from around his neck getting a startled look from Dawn, "Here, the Pokemon in this Pokeball is for emergency's only, don't let him out unless you have to." He told his girlfriend seriously as he forced the black Pokeball into her hands along with the other three. He was wary of letting Mewtwo out, he knew the only sure-fire way to make sure somebody who had seen him wouldn't come seeking the legendary would be to kill them, and he wasn't quite ready to commit a homicide yet.

Not that he was truly against the idea, the years of dealing with malicious Pokemon gangs had hardened him somewhat and he wasn't opposed to the untimely deaths of many people, such as Giovanni.

He was rather annoyed at not being able to celebrate Staravia evolving, but such was life.

Despite herself, Dawn was curious about the mystery Pokemon inside the black Pokeball, curious enough to ask despite the situation they were in, "What Pokemon is in it?" She asked.

Ash swallowed, he was about to outright deny her question, but then it came to his mind that this girl was his girlfriend, his significant other; if he couldn't be truthful with her, who could he be truthful with?

So he told her, some of it at least.

"A Pokemon called Mewtwo, he's one of my most powerful Pokemon and I keep his Pokeball on me at all times because of how rare he is." He explained quickly.

The bluenette quirked an eyebrow, "How rare exactly?" Dawn inquired sharply.

Ash grimaced, but he gave her a quick muttered, "Legendary."

Dawn's eyes widened, "Are you telling me there's a legendary Pokemon in this Pokeball?" She questioned in disbelief.

Ash gave her a quick nod, "That's why I never let him out in public, he draws too much attention. Keep him with you and I give you permission to let him out if you feel threatened in any way." He told her once again.

Dawn nodded, but had to ask, "What's going on?"

Ash looked from side to side suspiciously before answering, "I think there's a bunch of Hunters after this Riolu and they have at least one very powerful Pokemon with them, so I'm going to take Pikachu and deal with them." He stated, his voice level and calm as he could make it.

Dawn's eyes widened, "Are you sure?" She asked, feeling traces of fear creep along her spine.

Ash nodded, "It's my duty as a Pokemon Ranger to apprehend any Pokemon Poachers like these guys." The young Ranger replied.

Dawn sighed in reluctant acceptance before leaning over and giving him a long kiss on the lips and pulling back, "Be careful and stay safe so _when_ you get back we can explore this relationship of ours a bit more." His beautiful girlfriend told him with a flirty wink, putting extra emphasis on the word when, showing her trust in his return.

Ash picked up a wary Riolu and held him easily as he and Pikachu took off running through the foliage of the forest, leading the powerful Pokemon presence away from Dawn.

The young amber eyed teen was cursing up a storm as he went, "Fucking Poachers! Did you hear that Pikachu, these idiots cut into me exploring my relationship with Dawn!" He snarled angrily.

While Riolu looked at him with a deadpan expression from underneath his arm, Pikachu running beside him started laughing loudly at his expense.

* * *

Dawn stayed staring at the way Ash left the clearing, still a bit concerned for his safety, although she couldn't help her giddy excitement as she stared at the black Pokeball she'd slid around her neck on its silver chain.

She couldn't help the small amount of pride that came to her, here she was holding a Pokeball that contained a legendary Pokemon!

She'd never heard of this Mewtwo Pokemon before though, was it like some kind of evolved form of the Legendary Pokemon Mew?

She was broken from her excited thoughts when she heard angry clicking and hissing from behind her.

Whirling around, Dawn stared as an Ariados almost twice as large as any of the ones that attacked her the day she started her journey crawled into the clearing.

"Dos! Ari ari! Dos dos dos!" The red spider like Pokemon chattered at her angrily.

Dawn looked at it, the Pokemon tensing to attack her. Looking down at the Pokeball that held Mewtwo she steeled her resolve before grabbing one of her own Pokeballs.

If she always relied on Ash and his Pokemon, how could she ever become a competent enough Trainer and Coordinator that actually deserved to stand by his side?

"Ursaring, spotlight!" Dawn shouted as she released her most powerful Pokemon.

Ursaring appeared towering over Ariados with a roar filled with anger at the audacity of the puny spider that dared to attack his Trainer and excitement at finally battling a Pokemon that wasn't Pikachu and wouldn't be bitch slapping him around like a volley ball.

Ariados leaped into action, firing two dark black lightning-like blasts from it's eyes at Ursaring.

Dawn grimaced, Ash had told her about this attack, but she couldn't quite remember what it was called though, "Ursaring cut them to pieces with Slash!" She called out instinctively.

Ursaring gave a loud bestial roar before slashing in an upward arc with two glowing white claws, the two simultaneous Slash attacks severing the black lightning blasts in two, causing them to dissipate into thin air.

Dawn grinned as her mind went quickly through everything Ash had taught her so far about battling, and settled on the most... Ash-like way she could think of, "Follow up with Bulk Up!" She called out next, hurriedly.

Ursaring roared again and flexed his body's muscles, a crimson aura of power erupting around him.

"Dos dos!" The Ariados retorted to Ursaring as it fired a string of webbing from it's mouth towards Ursaring.

Dawn grinned as she saw it, "Catch that web and pull it towards you." Dawn ordered quickly.

Ursaring once again roared as he lifted a large claw and clasped the webbing firmly and jerked Ariados strongly towards himself through the air.

Ariados' eyes literally bugged out of it's head as it was pulled soaring through the air towards the large and intimidating bear Pokemon.

"Now with your free arm smash it down with Hammer Arm!" Dawn shouted her next order to Ursaring.

Ursaring nodded and when Ariados reached within a foot of him, Ursaring raised it's large free paw above it's head causing it's forearm to glow a blinding white before he brought it down in a crushingly powerful blow right dead center on top of Ariados' small head.

Ariados screeched in pain as it impacted the ground, the grassy area below it splintering and cratering from the blow of Hammer Arm.

Dawn decided not to give it a chance to recover at all, "Finish with Hyper Beam!" She ordered next, almost harshly.

Ursaring obeyed as he took a few steps back and opened his mouth, releasing a large wave of orange energy in the form of a beam straight into Ariados who was twitching madly on the ground.

The Hyper Beam crashed straight unto the dual Bug-Poison type and blasted it clear out of the area they were in, into a far deeper part of the forest.

The last they heard of Ariados was the near brutalized spider-like Pokemon's wails of pain before it disappeared into the foliage followed by a large explosion.

Dawn was silent for a moment before she exploded into a flurry of excited cheers as she launched herself at Ursaring, wrapping the large bear in a tight hug, "Wooo! We beat that Ariados like it was nothing! Way to go Ursaring!" She congratulated her powerhouse Pokemon who roared happily in reply and hugged her back just as tightly as they danced around the clearing excitedly over their first battle together being so easy. Ursaring was just happy to have WON a fight; losing to a tiny yellow rat all the time was destroying his pride piece by piece.

* * *

Deftly, Ash skidded into a large rocky clearing just outside of the forest and set Riolu down by his left, Pikachu taking up position in front of them as they prepared for the coming encounter.

They didn't have to wait long before from above they heard a bestial roar from the sky. A tall, short grey haired woman descended on the back of a Salamence, wearing some kind of purple trench coat and had a strange cannon-like device strapped to her wrist.

Ash recognized her almost instantly from a good many wanted posters he'd seen at the Ranger Station, "Pokemon Hunter J..." He muttered to himself with a growl in his throat.

The woman raised an eyebrow behind her black shades, "Interesting, my reputation seems to proceed me, now why don't you hand over that Riolu little boy?" She inquired, her tone mocking.

Ash smirked back at her, "As a Pokemon Ranger, I'm not sorry to say, but I'm going to have to apprehend you and and that flying handbag you're riding on." The amber eyed teen replied sharply.

"A Ranger eh...?" J mused, "A bit young, but I suppose I'll have to deal with you, Salamence Dragon Pulse!" She ordered suddenly.

Salamence underneath her roared in agreement before opening it's mouth and firing a large sphere of turquoise green energy towards Ash.

Salamence was a quadrupedal dragon-like Pokémon who had large red wings. Although primarily blue, Salamence possessed accentuations of red and gray coloration. The red-colored portions of its body included it's aforementioned wings, eyebrows, neck, and the undersides of its tail and limbs. The gray portions included its lower jaw and its belly, the latter of which appeared to be armored. Salamence had three spiky extensions splayed from the sides of its face similar to gills.

"Pikachu, send it back with Iron Tail." Ash countered calmly.

Pikachu spun on his feet lightly, his tail glowing brightly as he spun and slapped the Dragon Pulse harshly, sending the powerful Dragon-Type attack rocketing back to the surprised owner of the attack.

Salamence managed to just flap it's wings and ascend straight up a few feet, avoiding it's returned attack.

J raised an eyebrow, cool as can be. "That's a rather powerful Pikachu, I'm sure it will fetch a very nice price." She stated aloud, raising her hand, showing a Pokeball in hand, J released another Pokemon to the ground below Salamence, "Drapion, I choose you." She said, her voice still flat.

Below her a Drapion appeared with a loud cry, snapping it's large claws in anticipation.

Drapion was a large, purple, scorpion-like Pokémon. Its eyes were a pointed shape, with blue-colored upper portions. Drapion had two small, pointed protrusions between its eyes, and one on the back on its head. Drapion also had protrusions on its jaws, two on the upper and three on the lower, with large, fang-like, white-colored features extending from its mouth. Its body was composed of many violet-to-lavender body segments which ended with a tail with two stingers. Drapion had four segmented legs with pointed toes. Its most distinguished feature being its huge claws, which had a blue circular marking on the undersides, a similar marking being on the tail of the large scorpion-like Pokemon.

Ash gave a low whistle as he looked Drapion over, bringing his Pokedex out to get a better idea of how the Pokemon 'worked' so to speak, "That is one tough looking Pokemon, I may get one for myself." He commented, that said he hit the scan button on his Pokedex and brought up the information regarding Drapion.

" _Drapion, the Ogre Scorp Pokémon. Its claws give off a deadly poison and they are powerful enough to turn an automobile into scrap iron._ " Dexter, his Pokedex stated in that boring scientist drawl of his.

Ash gave a smirk as he slipped his Pokedex back into his pocket "So, I'm dealing with another powerhouse kind of Pokemon here?" Ash said aloud, "I'm liking these odds, Pikachu can definitely handle these two. And who knows, they might even give him a little bit of a work-out?" He continued, his tone level and brimming with confidence.

Although he really wished that Professor Oak had finished that new item he'd commissioned him to make for him, but he'd just have to make do for now.

"Confident are we?" J inquired, although she didn't sound curious at all.

Ash's smirk stretched a bit, "Yes and I'll show you why." He replied, "Pikachu, Extreme-Speed into Iron Tail now!" He blurted out quickly, not a second later.

J's eyes widened as Pikachu literally disappeared in a blur of high speed movement, appearing before Drapion before her eyes even finished widening, swinging a glowing white tail straight into Drapion's face, sending the large purple scorpion soaring through the air with a cry of surprise and pain.

As Drapion crashed into the ground harshly a good twenty feet away, J sprung to action, "Salamence, Flamethrower!" She called out loudly.

From it's mouth, Salamence unleashed a torrent of white hot flames towards Pikachu.

Pikachu was prepared though and his tail, still glowing with the power of Iron Tail, smacked against the ground, splintering it beneath him and launching himself high into the air, a bit above Salamence and J.

Ash acted immediately, "Thunderbolt!" He ordered his Pokemon.

Pikachu obeyed and gave a loud cry of, "Chu!" As the small electric rodent unleashed an extremely powerful crackling arc of lightning from his body straight at Salamence, more powerful than many Electric-Types could ever hope to match.

Salamence had no time to dodge and gave a cry of pain as it was lit up like a Christmas tree. J on the other hand, seeing the attack heading towards them, had jumped from her Salamence's back and landed on the ground on one knee.

Ash gave her no reprieve though as he gave Pikachu one more order, "Iron Tail!" The young amber eyed Ranger shouted as he rushed J himself.

Pikachu head and obeyed, spinning in mid-air before the Thunderbolt could even fully dissipate from around the in-pain Salamence, Pikachu slammed a crushing blow with his glowing white tail, straight into it's face and sending it careening down straight into Drapion who had just managed to pull itself up to a standing position again, sending both tumbling in a spray of limbs.

Hunter J, just managed to swerve to the right to avoid a devastating haymaker from Ash that would have likely broken her jaw.

She couldn't avoid the follow up though as the young Ranger spun deftly on his heel and came around at her with reflexes she couldn't hope to match and smashed her straight on the side of the chest with a powerful round-house kick, launching her tumbling across the rocky terrain they were in.

Ash was about to chase after her and lay down the beating of the century on the rogue Pokemon Hunter, but his Aura blazed in his mind and senses as he felt three Aura's with malicious intent closing in rapidly from the direction behind Riolu.

Turning around he was just in time to see Riolu watching him and Pikachu fight with rapt attention, and three more Crobat like the one from earlier burst from the forest Foliage, each launching a Shadow Ball – a sphere of dark purple ghostly energy – straight at Riolu's unsuspecting back.

Acting on instinct, Ash switched his attention to Riolu, the small crimson eyed Fighting-Type meeting his eyes, "Riolu, jump straight up and turn to face your back mid-air!" He ordered as if it were one of his own Pokemon.

Surprisingly, thanks to the fact that Ash had treated his injuries, fed him when he was starving and was now fighting to protect him from a Pokemon Hunter with powerful Pokemon that Riolu knew he couldn't match in battle, never mind both of them at once, Riolu obeyed; bouncing on his nimble feet straight into the air whirling to face his back mid-air and allowing the Shadow Balls to pass under him harmlessly.

Ash could practically feel Riolu's Aura pulsing in sync with his own, "Riolu, triple Aura Sphere now!" He commanded sharply.

Riolu once again followed Ash's orders and shot two small Aura Sphere's from a palm each, before holding both paws together and creating one double the size of the others and launching it a second behind the other two.

The three Crobat had been flying at Riolu as fast as they could, and so they couldn't hope to change their direction with the amount of momentum behind them. They'd been trying to catch Riolu by surprise, they were not expecting the Aura using Fighting-Type to react to them accordingly.

The two flying on the outside were blasted into the ground with cries of pain. The one in the middle received the largest Aura Sphere and screeched as it was literally blasted straight back into the forest.

Pikachu, seeing Ash was busy, wasn't idle; both Drapion and Salamence were hurt but they were not out of the fight yet, both Pokemon were at quite high levels, the only reason they weren't putting up a better fight being that Pikachu had taken them completely by surprise and hadn't let up once, not giving them any chance to recover and launch a counter attack.

Using a small Thunderbolt, Pikachu propelled himself into a dive straight at both Pokemon that were pushing themselves to their feet, a large glowing Aura of golden lightning surrounding him.

Both Drapion and Salamence looked up hearing the rapid cries of, "Pika, pika pika pika pika pika!" And only had time to both roar in surprise and slight fear as Pikachu literally dive bomb Volt Tackled them into the ground, creating a large crater beneath them and kicking up a large explosion of smoke that covered them.

A moment later, Pikachu jumped out of the smoke, landing a few metres away as the smoke cleared to reveal Drapion out-cold and unable to continue fighting and Salamence covered in a great many bruises, the most notable being a large purple bruise on the side of it's jaw delivered by Pikachu's Iron Tail and covered in a ton of burn marks from the Thunderbolt and Volt Tackle attacks.

As the two other Crobat unsteadily flew back into the forest, Ash with Riolu by his side began running towards Pikachu, "Pikachu finish it up with another Thunderbolt!" He called out to his partner.

Pikachu charged up his power and was about to unleash his Thunderbolt in devastating finisher, but his danger senses went into overdrive and the small yellow electric rodent had to jump to the side to avoid a small and thin orange beam that hit a tree behind him and turned it into stone.

Hunter J, dishevelled and bleeding from the nose sprinted past, returning Drapion to it's Pokeball in a beam of red energy and jumped on top of Salamence, "This is a lost cause, with this kid here that Riolu is too much trouble, get us out of here!" She commanded quickly as she landed on her large Dragon Pokemon.

Salamence took flight unsteadily slightly but took off into the air at the rapid speeds it's species were known for in the air.

Ash grit his teeth slightly as he saw her escape, "You're not getting away this time you evil bitch." He muttered to himself, reaching down he literally grabbed Pikachu by the bottom half and cocked his arm back and concentrated his Aura the best he could to augment his strength somewhat.

Pikachu gave him a wide eyed look as Ash, using as much Aura as he was could literally feel Pikachu's thoughts through the close brotherly bond they shared, " _You cannot be fucking serious Ash!_ " He cried at him in disbelief.

Ash ignored his partners sputtering pleads for him to stop being stupid and Riolu's wide eyed stare as if he was insane.

With a mighty chuck, Ash launched Pikachu soaring into the sky like a baseball.

Pikachu cried out after a moment in exhilaration, a massive grin encompassing his face, " _This is fucking awesome!_ " He screamed as he rocketed towards the unsuspecting Hunter J.

When he reached the apex of his flight he was still a good thirty feet from the silver haired Poacher and her get away Salamence, so Pikachu unleashed a powerful Thunderbolt; not as strong as his charged one, but still more powerful than most and way more than enough to knock J and her Salamence out of the sky.

"Chuuuu!"

The startled Hunter J heard the cry and turned before gaping at the Pikachu that was literally following them into the sky and just managed to stumble out of the way of the arc of electricity.

Only she didn't get away completely unscathed as it brushed against her arm, causing her to jolt in pain and drop the Pokeball she was clenching in that hand.

The Pokeball fell out of her hand and towards Pikachu because of their momentums, both now in freefall a good hundred feet in the air.

Salamence skidded to an abrupt stop mid-air but J stomped hard on it's back, "Leave it! That Drapion isn't worth getting caught for, I'll just steal a new one." She barked harshly.

Salamence winced slightly at his Trainer's tone but took off into the air again.

Ash grit his teeth when he saw Hunter J manage to escape but he had other problems to deal with.

Turning his head to Riolu, Ash ordered, "Riolu catch that Pokeball."

With that said, Ash sprinted over the clearing as Pikachu free-fell and skidded into a slide catching Pikachu deftly as he managed to get under the small yellow rodent.

Riolu on the other hand obeyed completely and sprinted over the clearing quickly, launching himself on the tip of his toes into a spinning front flip and caught Drapion's Pokeball mid-air, before landing nimbly beside Ash and Pikachu. He held the Pokeball out to Ash as the Trainer stood up and allowed Pikachu to climb up to his shoulder.

Ash took the Pokeball gratefully and gave Riolu a smile and an affectionate pat on the head, "Thanks for your help Riolu, but now you don't need to hang around me anymore, Hunter J is long gone and won't be coming back for you as long as she thinks her freedom is at stake." The young amber eyed teen stated aloud as he lifted his hand from Riolu's head and with a wave turned on his heel to begin leaving.

He was stopped though when he felt something tug on the bottom of his black cargo jeans, looking down he saw that it was Riolu's small paw.

"Is there something wrong?" Ash asked curiously.

Riolu looked shyly to the ground for a moment before steeling himself and looking Ash in the eye. Lifting his paw Riolu pointed to himself and then a Pokeball on Ash's silver belt.

Ash got the meaning well enough and an excited grin spread over his face, "You want me to catch you?" He asked his voice giddy with excitement at the prospect.

Riolu nodded, and then without even waiting for Ash he reached up and touched one of the empty Pokeballs on his belt and got sucked inside in a beam of red energy, putting up no fight whatsoever as the Pokeball gave of a soft 'ding' of capture as soon as all of the energy that was Riolu was secured within.

Ash grinned at Pikachu on his shoulder and gave him a thumbs up, "I can't believe we got so lucky to catch Riolu! I've been wanting to catch one ever since we met Lucario!" He literally gushed.

Pikachu laughed alongside his best friend, new and powerful Pokemon were always a welcome addition to Ash's large team of Pokemon.

They laughed happily for a few more moments before calming down. Ash looked down at the Pokeball clutched in his hand tightly with a frown, "Now, what will I do with you?" He questioned thoughtfully.

As he began brainstorming he and Pikachu began walking back towards where they left Dawn.

* * *

Ash found Dawn relaxing on a tree stump in the forest clearing he left her in, she was leaning on her back, her nice creamy legs on full display for him as he entered the clearing.

"Hey." The young Ranger greeted, slightly distracted.

Dawn sat up abruptly, cutting off the view Ash got of her thighs when her skirt had rode up. Though this fact was kind of disappointing, he put at out of mind as Dawn jumped up, a beaming smile on her beautiful face and rushed over to him and... flying glomped him, literally knocking him to the ground where she fell straight down on him and straddled his thighs.

"Hey." She greeted in return with a mischievous smile, "Did you catch this poacher person?" She asked excitedly.

Ash took a minute to answer, ignoring the tightening in his jeans, "No, but it was Hunter J after all, Rangers have been trying to capture her for years and haven't been successful." He replied. "To be frank, I got lucky; Pikachu surprised her and hit hard, and never let up. Not to mention when I personally attacked her, preventing her from helping her Pokemon. She got away, albeit barely, but at least not without some repercussions." The amber eyed teen continued.

Dawn raised an eyebrow as she leaned her face down towards his, pressing her forehead gently against his, "Oh? What did you do?" His beautiful girlfriend inquired.

Ash grinned cheekily at her, "Well, the best thing that happened was Riolu decided to become my Pokemon, but Pikachu also liberated J of one of her Pokemon." Ash answered.

Dawn's eyes sparkled, "Congratulations, Riolu sounds like the perfect kind of Pokemon for you, but," Dawn put emphasis on the but, "Now explain Mewtwo to me." She told him in a no nonsense tone as she sat up and removed the Legendary's Pokeball from her neck and slipped it around Ash's, as well as the other Pokeballs he'd lent her.

Ash sighed as he clipped his Pokeballs back to his belt, "Mewtwo is actually a Pokemon cloned from the DNA of the Legendary Pokemon Mew, and while he can't learn almost every attack like the original Mew can, he's still a bit more powerful in contrast to the original."Ash explained.

"You can clone Pokemon?" Dawn asked in shock, her eyes wide.

Ash shook his head, "Not anymore, as far as I'm aware only one place that successfully did so was where Mewtwo was born, and he destroyed the entire facility in a fit of rage, taking the scientists and research alike with it." Ash elaborated.

Dawn stood up in a bit of a daze, followed quickly in suit by Ash, "Am I allowed to meet Mewtwo? He sounds like a really cool Pokemon. Would it be safe?" His girlfriend asked hesitantly.

Ash sighed but relented, "The only people hurt in his escape were the Team Rocket personnel who were experimenting on Pokemon. As long as you're not secretly part of Team Rocket he's harmless." He assured her, ignoring the twitch from Mewtwo he felt when Ash called him harmless. He needed Mewtwo's help for something anyway, reaching up he touched unclipped Mewtwo's Pokeball from his silver chain before releasing the gene Pokemon in a flash of energy.

Mewtwo phased into view right in front of both him and Dawn, although this time he was wearing the armor Giovanni had made for him, the black screen over his eyes on the helmet lightning up with two blue glowing eyes as Mewtwo crossed his arms, " _Yes Ash?_ " He asked.

Dawn gasped in shock, "He just talked!" She blurted out.

Mewtwo ignored her for the moment as Ash chuckled, as he forgot that not many people knew that tidbit about Legendaries, "Yeah the majority of Legendary Pokemon can speak our language with their mind or otherwise." Ash told her.

"Ooooh." Dawn gushed slightly, filing that knowledge away.

" _I can see what you want from your mind, I assume you want me to use my powers to do that?_ " Mewtwo inquired.

Ash nodded his head, not bothering with a verbal command knowing Mewtwo could already hear it in his mind.

Mewtwo sighed but motioned to him and then the ground with his three-digit hands.

Ash got the meaning and stepped forward, placing Drapion's Pokeball on the ground between him and Mewtwo before backing up a few extra steps with Dawn.

Mewtwo glowed slightly with a blue outline before he clenched his hand into a fist.

The Pokeball that Drapion resided in literally ceased to exist thanks to Mewtwo's powers and Drapion appeared hissing in pain between Mewtwo and the young couple in a flash of blue energy.

Drapion turned to Ash and and snarled furiously at him, with his Aura and the anger in the statement Ash could feel far better than most that Drapion was blaming him for it's Trainer abandoning it.

Drapion, although still covered in a great many injuries from getting a beating from Pikachu stumbled forward with glowing purple claws attempting to attack Ash.

Pikachu on his shoulder tensed and was about to launch himself forward with an Iron Tail to protect Ash, but there was no need.

Suddenly the air around Drapion glowed a shimmering blue as Mewtwo forced his Psychic energy into it and all of a sudden to Drapion the air felt like it weighed a ton and the large purple scorpion collapsed onto the ground with a muffled grunt of pain.

Ash ignored Dawn's warning as he stepped forward and crouched down to look Drapion in the eyes a serious frown on his face and his eyes narrowed, "Don't blame me because you had a crappy Trainer, I believe J's exact words were 'Leave it, that Drapion isn't worth getting caught over! I can always steal a new one'." Ash retorted to it's hissing.

Drapion flinched back as if struck and looked to the ground in shame as if it was it's own failure that had it end up in this position. Ash's eyes softened at the pitiable look on the large Pokemon, he had always been a softy when it came to Pokemon, more often than not Pokemon were more pure at heart than people, only being forced into evil actions by their evil Trainers. Reaching out Ash surprised Drapion who literally gaped at him as he softly and soothingly rubbed circles on it's head, "It isn't your fault, nor is it that Salamence's, J would have dropped either of you and abandoned you both if there was even the slightest chance that she would be caught if she took you with her, personally I can't see her reasoning for leaving behind a Pokemon like you. From what I've seen you're very versatile, quite powerful and can take one hell of a beating. Not many Pokemon can stay conscious after the beating Pikachu was giving you two." Ash's words were comforting, soothing and slightly pride filling, not just any Pokemon could take that kind of beating and be able to stand up ready to fight only a few minutes later.

Ash chuckled as he clipped Mewtwo's Pokeball back to his silver chain around his neck as Drapion's face suddenly turned away with a small red hue in the middle.

"Now I'm sorry." Ash stated suddenly as he lifted an empty Pokeball from his silver belt, "But I can't just leave you here injured like this, although I promise that you'll be taken good care of." He continued as he held the Pokeball to Drapion's eyes.

Drapion merely nodded, resigned to it's new fate, if it's old trainer Hunter J abandoned him, what loyalty did he owe her? The food she had sucked anyway.

Ash smiled and gently touch the Pokeball to Drapion's cranium, opening the Pokeball in the process and absorbing Drapion inside in a beam of red energy.

The Pokeball vibrated slightly in his hand before easing up and stopping, the red glow around it dying down as Drapion was captured.

Mewtwo nodded in front of him as he stood up, " _Very well, I am no longer needed._ " Mewtwo stated, he looked slightly towards Dawn, " _It was nice to meet you, my future mistress._ " Mewtwo actually teased.

Giving them no chance to counter, Mewtwo used his Psychic powers to command the Pokeball around Ash's neck to open up and return him inside in a beam of red energy.

Ash sighed at Mewtwo's joking; who knew a Pokemon as uptight as Mewtwo was actually had a fun side to him?

Looking at Dawn, he caught her staring at him with a light blush, not even commenting on how Mewtwo returned to his Pokeball without Ash returning him.

"Future Mistress eh?" Dawn asked a coy smile on her lips as her blush disappeared and she sauntered over to him, swinging those amazing hips of hers nicely as she did so. "I think that means wife." Dawn pointed out as she leaned forward pressing her generous bust into Ash's chest as she wrapped her arms around his neck and looked him in the eye.

Ash's eyebrows raised suggestively as he gave her a feral smirk, "Call it want you want babe, but I think I like the idea." He replied confidently.

Ash surprised Dawn as his hands slipped down and cupped her round ass through her skirt, "Now, I think you told me earlier that we could 'explore' our relationship more when I got back from dealing with the poachers." He ground out huskily.

Dawn's eyes sparkled as she leaned up and kissed up his neck, "Mmm, yes I did boyfriend of mine." She purred against his neck sensually.

With nobody around hormones and pent up sexual tension ruled the day; Her words were all the prompting Ash needed as he used his grip on her round cheeks to cup her luscious arse tighter and lifted her up against him, Dawn complying and wrapping her creamy legs around his waist as their faces met in a passionate kiss, tongue and all.

* * *

 **Omake**

 **Idea by:** 0 Jordinio 0, Slicerness

 **Written By:** Slicerness

 **Suspicions**

Ash was walking with his group of friends; Brock was ahead of the group scouting the area from the hill they were approaching and May and Drew were behind him talking. Drew was accompanying them at May's insistence, as was usual when they met up occasionally before Contests. Ash's stare grew distant as a series of scenes played out in his head.

*Flash*

"Hello, I am Drew Larose." The green haired, effeminate boy said in a slow drawl that suggested that he was the most important person in the room. What caught Ash's subconscious' attention was the way he flicked his hair though; it was identical to the way he'd seen a number of longer haired women and girls did when they were introducing themselves and wanted to bring the possible paramour's attention to their beauty.

*Flash*

"Behold! Roselia, come forth!" Drew cried as he daintily tossed his Pokeball in the air. The Roselia appeared in a spiral of hearts, hiding it's face bashfully behind it's hands and fluttering it's eyes at Ash.

Drew struck a pose, "Roselia is my most gorgeous Pokemon, nothing can stand against it's beauty!" He boasted.

Ash blinked; Wasn't that Roselia a boy?

*Flash *

Back in the present Ash shook his head, barely hearing the conversation behind him he'd been mostly tuning out. "-And tonight we can go _shopping_!" May squealed in that way that only women can-

"Eeeh! Yeah! I saw this delightful pair of pants that would look _divine_ on you a few days ago. I think they might look better on Ash though..."

-Or not, proven by Drew somehow making the same sound.

Ash glanced behind him and noticed Drew's eyes were locked on something a little lower than his backpack. It was about the time Drew licked his lips that Ash's subconscious connected the final piece of the puzzle and he spun around.

Ash wasn't quite sure what happened, just like at the pool, only this time it was his leg that shot up and nailed Drew in the cheek, the momentum of his spin strengthening the strike and sending the boy flying into the ditch beside the road.

Ash blinked at his leg as he lowered it, wondering why his limbs all seemed to enjoy turning Drew black and blue. He realized a few second later that May had started to lay into him for what he'd done.

"Ash! Why do you keep hitting Drew? Wah wah waaah wah!" Her scolding seemed to become muffled and lose all coherence to Ash as he caught sight of May's enormous breasts jiggling heavily as she gestured wildly. She'd chosen to wear a thin tank-top because of how hot it was out and Ash was reaping the visual benefits.

Up the road Brock wiped a tear from his eyes. "So proud!" He said with a pumped fist.


	8. Chapter 8

"So, this is a Gym?" Dawn inquired, her blue hair swaying in the breeze.

Her boyfriend, who's hand she was clasping gently with her own, turned to look at her. "Yeah, why, is there something wrong with it?" Ash questioned, he'd seen a great many Gym's like the one in front of them and nothing seemed wrong to him.

Dawn shook her head in the negative, "No, not really, it's just I didn't expect the Gym to look like a big rock." The bluenette replied, gesturing vaguely towards the large building.

Ash chuckled, amused as he ceded to her point. He'd grown so used to it that he didn't even pay it any mind anymore. "It's built like that to show that this Gym is a Gym that focuses on and specializes in Rock-Type Pokemon." The amber eyed teen told her.

The Oreburgh City Gym looked as if it was actually built right into the side of a mountain.

"Oh." Dawn replied shortly before perking up, "So do you know what Pokemon you're going to be using?" His beautiful girlfriend asked.

Ash nodded, "From the information I gathered, Roark the Gym Leader here always goes with 3-on-3 battles, so I've chosen Turtwig, Riolu and I used my Pokedex to grab one of my older Pokemon from the Oak Ranch back in Pallet Town." He replied.

Dawn looked at him with curious eyes, "What Pokemon did you get?" She asked.

Ash just gave her a mischievous smile, "You'll see when I send him out." He replied teasingly.

Dawn was ready to question him more, maybe bribe him with one of those 'activities' he liked doing with her, but sighed and closed her eyes in defeat when she saw her boyfriend's resolute look, "Fine..." She relented with a small pout of her supple pink lips.

As Ash lead Dawn in through the doors of the Gym, a question she'd been thinking on for a few days came to mind, "Hey, I've been thinking about this for a little while now, but do you think I can get it set up so that when I have more than six Pokemon, the rest go to the Oak Ranch with your Pokemon?" The blue haired beauty asked.

Ash stopped suddenly in the middle of the Gym reception room and blinked, "Huh..." He said stupidly to himself before he plastered a grin to his face and released a forced laugh as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly and looked his girlfriend in the face, "Yeah, funny story, I kind of already set that up way back when we were at Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem Town, I just assumed you'd like it that way so my Pokemon who reside there can help yours with their training." Ash answered her, his voice having an odd hitch.

Dawn gave a cooing noise as she leaned up and pecked Ash on the cheek, "Aww, I have the best Boyfriend ever." She cooed before slipping her hand out of his.

Ash raised an eyebrow in slight confusion, glad she wasn't mad at him for taking liberties, "But we weren't dating when I did that." The young Ranger pointed out.

Dawn took a few steps in front of him and started walking through the Gym, swaying her hips nicely from side to side, the way she was doing it teased Ash all the more because at the end of each sway it looked like her small pink skirt would swish just enough to give him the view of the tantalizing prize beneath, but it never did. "Are you saying you didn't want this then?" She asked curiously, and Ash could swear he could hear the sultry grin on the bluenette's face.

Ash felt a throb of desire shoot through him but squashed it as he forced himself under control, "Trust me Dawn, I've wanted a piece of that since the first time you walked in front of me." He growled huskily as he stepped up and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and pulled her back against his chest, leaning his head to the side and brushing her hair out of the way, he began to gently suck on a sweet spot Dawn had at the nape of her neck that he'd discovered the previous night when they'd stayed up for hours 'exploring' their relationship.

Releasing a quiet moan subtly as she could Dawn returned fire by angling her hips back and began to grind her supple behind into Ash's crotch.

"Ahem!" A young male voice coughed, interrupting them. "Could you get a room if you're going to do stuff like that?" The young male – a man's – voice inquired.

"Hn..." Another cold voice snorted, "No wonder you took this long to get here, you were too busy attempting to screw your new girlfriend than actually pay attention to Gym Battles." The cold but rather familiar voice stated, although there was no real bite behind the words.

Both stiffened rather abruptly, but Ash relaxed when he recognized the cold voice of Paul. Tightening his grip on Dawn slightly to keep her from springing out of his embrace - she still got rather flushed and embarrassed when a tease backfired on her; they'd have to work on that, he didn't really care about the public's opinion, they were a fickle bunch – taking a second, he nipped gently on her sweet spot again getting her to melt into his arms with a sigh before he let his eyes wander up to meet Paul's cold orbs and the amused glasses covered orbs of an older male wearing a grey open vested miner outfit and a red miner helmet covering long beage locks of hair, "Hey Paul, fancy meeting you here." Ash greeted with a small smile on his face, not even bothering to remove his face from his girlfriends neck.

Paul's eyebrow gained a twitch of annoyance, the cold purple haired Trainer had met a great many Trainers on his journey through the Regions, and despite heeding the slightly older Trainer's advice recently, conceded to himself that no other person in the world could get under his skin like Ash Ketchum. "Ketchum, can you at least remove your face from that girl's neck?" Paul asked in annoyance.

Ash only gave him a patronizing smile as he rubbed his nose gently up and down Dawn's pulse point, causing the bluenette to let out a small sigh of pleasure at the tingly feelings it sent up her spine, "Sorry Paul no can do, don't worry I'll explain why I'm doing this when you start going through puberty so you can understand it better." The young Ranger replied easily.

Paul's eyebrows both began to twitch violently and he began to grind his teeth in frustration, "I've seen your Trainer page! We're the same age!" The purple haired trainer retorted angrily.

Ash turned his head and stopped his ministrations on his girlfriend's neck and proceeded to stare blankly at Paul, "If you're the same age as me, then why are you asking such stupid questions?" He asked, the Trainer's mirth-filled amber eyes widening a moment later as if he just realized something, complete with a hammy gasp. "Unless your gay! It makes sense in fact, every time we've met, you haven't so much as bat an eye at Dawn here despite how gorgeous she is, yet you always focus so intently on me!" Ash blurted out in 'realization'.

Paul's face went slack with shock, before his eyes hardened, his mouth formed into a snarl and his face went almost red with rage, he opened his mouth to give Ash a piece of his mind, but was cut off.

"I'm sorry Paul, I'm flattered I really am, but I'm just not into that kind of debauchery." Ash told him 'soothingly' as he gestured to Dawn who along with the other older man looked highly amused by the situation, "I'm already taken and I'm a one _woman_ kinda guy." The young Trainer stated, putting extra emphasis on the word 'woman'.

Paul opened and closed his mouth wordlessy, trying his damnedest to fire back a heated and biting retort, but just couldn't seem to do it, so he settled for throwing his arms in the air and snarling angrily before pushing past Ash briskly and racing out of the entrance of the Oreburgh Gym.

Ash and Dawn watched him go before they both burst out in loud laughter as they separated, "Ha... Oh that guy, he's just so easy to rile up." Ash wiped an amused tear from the side of his eye as he finished laughing, fighting back the grin he so wanted to let out when he heard Pikachu, who'd been sleeping in his backpack, giggling loudly.

Taking a deep breath to stop himself from laughing again, Ash stood to his full height and let an easy smile come across his face as he offered his hand to the older dark red haired male, who'd cracked a grin of amusement of his own, "Sorry about that, me and Paul don't always see eye to eye so I try to rile him up every time we meet." Ash told the glasses wearing man who took his offered hand and shook it with a firm grip, "I'm Ash Ketchum and this beauty beside me is my girlfriend Dawn Berlitz" The amber eyed teen introduced himself and Dawn as he gestured to her.

The helmet wearing man nodded to Dawn's wave of her hand as a greeting, "Hello, I'm Roark and I'm the Gym Leader of this Gym." The now named Roark replied.

Ash's smile stretched a bit, "That's great, I was just here to ask you for a Gym battle." The black haired teen stated.

Roark gave him an apologetic smile, "Sorry, but I just got through with having Gym battle with Paul and I need to take my Pokemon to the Pokemon Center to recover, so I won't be able to battle you until tomorrow." He told his young challenger.

"Who won?" Dawn inquired politely.

"It was a close battle, especially when my Cranidos evolved into Rampardos, I thought I had the battle won then, I just didn't expect Paul's Elekid to evolve into Electabuzz a few moments later and pull a win from the grasps of defeat." Roark said in answer to the bluenette's question.

Ash waved off his apology, "It's fine, you're Pokemons' health is far more important then a little badge; go on." He tilted his head, gesturing towards the door.

Roark nodded in thanks, giving a brief, "I'll be looking forward to our battle tomorrow, Ash." before he left his Gym.

Ash and Dawn wordlessly left the Gym, hand in hand. When they got outside Dawn stood on her tiptoes and looked around the city. She apparently found what she was looking for because she turned to Ash and excitedly said, "I'm gonna go check out the Contest Hall to see where and when the next contest is being held." She declared.

Since she was already on her toes she took advantage of the situation and pecked him on the lips. Normally, such a small kiss would prompt Ash to lean forward for more, but the to honorary Ranger's surprise and happiness it was Dawn this time who darted forward again to claim a second kiss, this one much longer and deeper as she grabbed onto his jacket to pull them closer.

They eventually pulled apart, both their faces flush with desire for more despite half the pair having just made plans for herself not five seconds ago.

"I think we'll be doing some more exploring tonight." Ash whispered, his voice slightly deeper.

Dawn hummed, somehow making it sound sultry, as she agreed. She managed to snap out of it before she turned on her heel and walked away.

Ash watched her hips swaying, the really cheesy line about hating to see her go but loving to watch her leave playing in his head, before he too ventured towards the town proper; looking for something to do to pass the time.

* * *

Ash walked silently down the busy streets of Oreburgh city, his hands in his pockets and his face was set in a thoughtful look as he contemplated his up-coming battle tomorrow.

While both Turtwig and Riolu were strong in their own right and had the advantage thanks to their types, both were still young and rather inexperienced.

Gym Leaders were not to be underestimated, Wallace had been one of the Hoenn Gym Leaders, yet now he was the Champion of the whole Hoenn Region.

So, he'd used his Pokedex to bring over one of his oldest Pokemon, one he'd caught on his very first journey through Kanto and had won him a great many battles to make sure he came out the winner, despite using two very new Pokemon.

Ash was just passing by the Museum contemplating if he should take his Pokemon out for a quick training session up in the rocky coal mines when a large explosion rocked the street, a good sized chunk of the Museum being blown straight off and leaving a large gaping hole in the side of the building.

In the smoke filled haze coming from the hole in the wall of the Museum – where Ash quickly deduced the explosion occurred – he could make out three shadowy figures before the one with wings took to the air and flew straight out of the smoke into the air, just in time to miss a large orange beam of powerful energy that blasted straight through where it had been.

"That was a Hyper Beam." Ash commented to himself as the bystanders on the street began screaming in panic and fleeing the area.

Looking up, Ash was rather surprised to find that the flying figure was in fact an Aerodactyl!

Aerodactyl possessed serrated, saw-like fangs, It's wings possessing light purple skin stretched from it's side to it's arms. It had a gray oval-shaped bod with a triangular tip. Aerodactyl had dark green eyes, though the iris of it's eyes were barely visible.

Turning his attention back to the clearing smoke and debris, Ash noted that one of the shadows, the smallest one, had disappeared, just as the smoke finally cleared to show a very pissed off looking Armaldo roaring in fury at the flying Aerodactyl, who was flying up above the street and heading through the city.

Armaldo was a bipedal, amphibious Pokémon, somewhat resembling a mantis shrimp and covered with thick, heavy-duty plates. It was mainly colored blue, with accents of yellow, black, white and red. Additionally, Armaldo's eyes extended from the sides of its head. However, they were not beady and instead oblong in shape. Armaldo also had a black pattern present on it's head, supported by a long neck with three lobes on each side. It had a yellow lower jaw, and a continuation of the yellow coloration on the rims of the armor on its underside. The yellow patterning encircled the holes on the armor of the underside, out of which Armaldo's blue-and-black-tipped, segmented blade-like arms extended from. The yellow rim on the shell underside culminated on Armaldo's lower belly, although there was also yellow rimming on the fin-like, triangular 'wings' on Armaldo's sides. Armaldo's legs were thick, with black-colored knees and two toes. Armaldo's long tail was similar to that of the Legendary Pokemon Lugia's in shape, although blue with black fins.

"Maldo!" Armaldo shouted in fury at the retreating form of Aerodactyl. Opening it's mouth it fired a decent sized glowing silver beam of energy at Aerodactyl, who swerved to the side avoiding it completely and continuing to flee in the air.

Growling again, Armaldo started running after Aerodactyl, intent on chasing down the reborn flyer.

All the while, Ash stood in the same spot as he had since the beginning of the spectacle, not sure if he should get involved or not; it wasn't really his place to discipline someone else's Pokemon after all.

"H-help." A male voice rasped from the fallen debris around the hole in the wall of the museum, a shaking hand pushing it's way through and waving for assistance.

Ash acted quickly and rushed to the man's aid, pulling the debris aside to show a slightly injured older man maybe in his early 30's.

Ash pulled the man out and shook him gently, "Hey, hey are you okay?" He asked.

The older man, a scientist by the looks of it if his thick glasses and white lab coat were anything to go by, groaned and his eyes fluttered open, landing on the Pokeball around Ash's neck, "A-are you a Pokemon trainer?" He rasped out.

Ash nodded, although he was rather curious why this injured scientest was asking if he was a trainer or not, "Yeah, I am. Why?" The young Ranger inquired.

The scientist lifted his hand weakly, "Those three ancient Pokemon; Armaldo, Aerodactyl and Kabutops, are a newly reborn group of Pokemon from fossils found in the mines, but ever since they were revived a few days ago they've been extremely violent and refused to submit to any of our Trainers at the lab..." The older man trailed off with a cough, "Please, this is our fault, please subdue them before they can hurt anyone el-" That was as far as the scientist got before he fell limp in Ash's arms.

Sighing, Ash set the man down gently before standing up. Looking down at the man he quirked a grin at him, "I'm a nice guy, but I'm still a Trainer and you just asked me to subdue ancient and rare Pokemon." Ash stated evenly before continuing his voice becoming rather cheerful, "I hope you know that you won't be getting them back, they may be prehistoric, but a Pokemon is a Pokemon, and all a rowdy Pokemon needs is the right Trainer to cow it's attitude, and I'm happy to take up that position."

Ash was running down the street after Armaldo for a few moments before he realized something and began cursing, "Dammit! I completely forgot about the Kabutops." He said aloud, "To hell with it, I'll track it down once I'm done with these two."

* * *

Dawn smiled to herself as she left the Oreburgh City Contest Hall. It hadn't taken her long to find it at all and when she did there was a video on repeat on the big screen in the middle of the hall. The video being of Marian and her announcing the next Contest would be taking place on Floroama Town.

As Dawn walked out of the Contest Hall, she noted something weird; the street that had been so busy before she had entered the hall was now desolate and a few of the buildings were even damaged, large slash marks across the walls and even a few holes that punched straight through the building into the inside.

The street she was in was eerily quiet as the bluenette walked down it cautiously. Dawn whirled around her, heart rate increasing as she heard the sound of something metallic clanking across the ground.

When she turned Dawn easily identified the sound as coming from an empty soda can that spilled out of one of the alleys across the road, picking up subtle movement in the alley Dawn squinted her eyes, but there was no need as whatever was lurking in the shadows of the alley stepped out into the day light to give Dawn's blue eyes a good look at it.

"What Pokemon is that...?" Dawn murmured to herself as she pulled out her pink Pokedex and hit the scan button to get a read on it.

" _Kabutops,_ _With sharp claws, this ferocious, ancient Pokémon rips apart prey and sucks their body fluids._ _This Kabutops is Male and has the ability Battle Armor. Currently, this Kabutops knows the attacks Night Slash, Aqua Jet, Giga Drain, Earth Power and Ancient Power_ _._ " The voice of the pink Pokedex stated before Dawn slipped it back inside her pocket.

"The Pokedex told me the attacks it knows, so that means it's a wild Pokemon..." Dawn concluded to herself. The Kabutops had noticed her now and was standing stock still, staring at her. "Ash would kill me if I didn't try to catch a wild Pokemon this rare and strong when I had the chance." The bluenette told herself as she grabbed one of her Pokeballs.

Kabutops stood bipedal on two long legs, Two long sharp claws (or sickles) extended from Kabutops' exoskeleton and several plates closed the front of the torso off. There were six hard spikes going down from the back of its neck, three on each side that lead down towards the beginning of its tail. Its head was covered in a rock-hard, semicircle-shaped armor. A stiff, brown tail protruded from its back.

"Ursaring, spotlight!" Dawn called out as she released Ursaring from his Pokeball.

The large bear Pokemon appeared with a roar of excitement in a flash of energy.

"Kabutops!" Kabutops sneered threateningly as it began to walk towards Ursaring, who responded in kind and began marching towards his opponent as well.

"Focus Blast!" Dawn called out abruptly.

Ursaring punched both palms together quickly before pulling them apart to reveal a beach ball sized cyan blue energy ball of power, before Ursaring threw his arms forward and launched the Focus Blast at Kabutops.

Kabutops hissed in reply as his sickle like claws glowed a light red and slashed them forward in an X formation, cutting straight through the Focus Blast like wet tissue and forcing it to dissipate from lack of shape.

Kabutops didn't finish there though and followed up quickly as it's body became surrounded in a veil of water and it shot off like a rocket straight towards Ursaring, slamming into the large bear Pokemon's stomach and sending it sprawling back towards Dawn faster than the Normal-Type could react.

"That was fast." Dawn commented as Ursaring stood up to his full height and gave a roar of challenge, despite being scuffed up slightly.

Kabutops responded in kind as it took off in another jet of water straight towards Ursaring.

"Don't back down!" Dawn ordered, "Use Bulk Up and then block it with Slash!"

Ursaring growled as he became outlined by a deep crimson glow, before the glow disappeared and Ursaring brought up two sets of glowing white claws crossed against his chest, just as Kabutops reached him and ploughed straight into him harshly.

The ground beneath Ursaring cratered from the force of the impact, but the large bear Pokemon held strong stopping Kabutops in it's tracks.

"Now!" Dawn shouted, "Push it off balance and follow up with Hammer Arm!" The bluenette commanded sharply.

Ursaring roared and pushed forward with a burst of strength, disrupting the veil of water around Kabutops and sending the prehistoric Pokemon staggering back a few stops, leaving it open with no hope of counter for the glowing white arm Ursaring brought down on it's head sending it crashing off into the street a good few metres away.

As Kabutops shakily pulled itself to it's knee's, Dawn pumped her fist in the air and prepared to finish this battle now, "Finish up with Hyper Beam!" The blue eyed girl shouted.

Ursaring opened it's mouth where an orange orb of energy began to gather and condense, but just as Ursaring was prepared to fire it in a beam of epic power, Kabutops glowed faintly with a golden outline of energy before it brought down both bladed sickles on the ground harshly.

The ground began to splinter and break apart and travelled right over below Ursaring, before the ground opened up and entrapped Ursaring in a golden hail of power coming from beneath the surface of the street and causing Ursaring to roar in pain as he lost his focus and the Hyper Beam attack dissipated from it's gaping maw.

Not a second later did the golden glow disappear and Kabutops followed up once again before Ursaring could recover.

From three of the spike-like segments on Kabutops' back, three glowing green beams of energy erupted and shot across the street, wrapping around Ursaring's body and lifting it a few feet into the air as they drained Ursaring's health and replenished Kabutops' with the stolen energy.

With each passing second as Dawn tried to think of a way to turn the battle in Ursaring's favour, Kabutops began to look livelier and livelier as the ancient Pokemon stood to it's full height again, it's injuries done to it by Ursaring healing and fading away bit by bit.

"Ursaring use Hammer Arm to break out!" Dawn ordered desperately; she was running out of options.

Ursaring's arms glowed white and it began to struggle against it's glowing green energy binds, but it wasn't to be as Kabutops brought it's sickle bladed arms into the air and slashed down at Ursaring, creating and launching a beach ball sized silvery white glowing ball of energy.

Ursaring's eyes widened and it began to struggle harder against it's bindings, but to no avail, the powerful silver orb of energy crashed directly into Ursaring's face, exploding and launching Ursaring soaring through the air, crashing into a building a good distance away and sliding down to the concrete ground unconscious.

Dawn cursed, "No! Ursaring!" She called out worriedly, pulling up his Pokeball, Dawn returned him in a beam of red energy before Kabutops could continue to beat on the large injured bear.

Kabutops hissed angrily at her and began to walk towards her threateningly.

Steeling any fear she felt, Dawn grabbed another Pokeball and released the Pokemon inside, "Go Aipom!" She said aloud.

Aipom was a small purple furred monkey-like Pokemon with a large grin on her face and a long purple tail that ended with a large four fingered human hand at the top.

As Dawn was thinking of a strategy to beat Kabutops, something her boyfriend Ash told her after her loss to Nando and his Roselia floated into her mind.

" _Every attack that a Pokemon can learn and use to recover their health has one glaring weakness; every single one of them have the same weakness._ " _Ash's voice instructed,_ " _While they may heal injuries sustained by the using Pokemon, the moves themselves do not cure the fatigue the Pokemon has gained during the battle thus far. They may be healthy again, but that doesn't mean they aren't exhausted._ "

Dawn smiled suddenly as an idea came to mind, "Power up Focus Punch and run towards it." she ordered.

Aipom obeyed and started sprinting towards Kabutops, the fist of her tail beginning to glow a brighter and brighter white with every passing moment.

Kabutops charged as well, both sickle-like claws glowing light red again in preparation for the clash to come.

When they were a few feet from each other, Dawn acted. "Now Double Team!" She commanded sharply.

Suddenly multiple clones of Aipom appeared in a line running at Kabutops, who charged straight into the one at the front slashing right at her, only to phase right through her and the images to disappear

"Now from above!" Dawn called out.

Aipom came down with a loud cheer, crashing a devastating Focus Punch right onto the top center of Kabutops' cranium.

Kabutops screeched in pain as it's face was ploughed straight into the ground, cratering it and injuring both the front of his face and the top of it's skull.

Dawn, seeing her chance took it, not even noticing Aipom, who had jumped back to her side glowing a bright white. Grabbing an empty Pokeball, Dawn launched it through the air towards Kabutops.

Kabutops, who was face down on the concrete ground, was struggling hard to get up but to no avail. The Pokeball smacked it and opened up absorbing Kabutops inside it in a beam of red energy.

Dawn waited with baited breath as the Pokeball shook from side to side glowing a deep red, side to side it shook for a few moments before stilling and the red glow fading as it gave off a soft 'ding' signifying capture.

Walking over a beaming smile on her face, Dawn picked the Pokeball of her newest Pokemon up and cheered, "We did it!" She cheered before turning to face Aipom, only to gape as she did; for in Aipom's place stood a larger version of Aipom with two long tails tipped off with large human hands.

"Ambi, ambi Ambipom!" The new form of Aipom cheered.

Blinking stupidly, Dawn slipped Kabutops' Pokeball into her bag and grabbed her pink Pokedex.

Bringing the Pokedex up Dawn hit the scan button to check out her newly evolved Pokemon, " _Ambipom, the evolved form of Aipom, it evolves when Aipom learns the attack Double-Hit._ " The dull monotone female voice stated aloud.

Dawn slipped the Pokedex into her bag and ran up and hugged her new Ambipom, "We did it! Not only did we catch Kabutops but you evolved as well!" She cheered as she hugged her Pokemon, who replied in kind hugging her back and cheering with her in excitement.

Pulling Ambipom's Pokeball out after their short celebration, Dawn returned her in a beam of red before standing up with a sigh of relief, "Whoo, I didn't even battle and I'm exhausted." The bluenette sighed to herself, "I guess I'll go to our room at the Pokemon Center and show Ash my newest Pokemon." She commented to herself idly as she stood up and began walking down the street towards the Pokemon Center, completely ignoring all the damage her Pokemon caused to the street in her attempt to catch Kabutops. Even if she did... well it was somebody else's problem; she had a boyfriend to impress!

* * *

By the time Ash had caught up with Armaldo, he found himself at the rocky outcrop coal mines just outside the city. Armaldo and Aerodactyl were already engaged in a battle, something Ash realized when he noted that both Pokemon had a few injuries littering their bodies each.

Aerodactyl opened it's mouth and fired a powerful looking Hyper Beam straight at Armaldo from mid-air, only for Armaldo to return fire and both powerful Hyper Beam's to clash in the air between them, exploding against each other and launching their respective users soaring a few metres back, scuffed up with a few more burns added to their injuries.

Ash had seen enough, reaching down he grabbed a Pokeball from his silver belt and unleashed the Pokemon inside, "Haunter let's do this." He stated calmly.

Beside him Haunter phased into existence a silly grin on his face – Haunter always was his most cheerful Pokemon, and prankster for what it's worth – noticing Haunter reaching inside his mouth and down his non existent throat reaching to pull out one of his prank bombs, Ash decided to curb it before Haunter started, "Not right now Haunter, I need your help just now, we can go play pranks together later." Ash told his Ghost Pokemon.

Haunter whined and pouted – a scary thing indeed – but relented and floated steadily beside Ash awaiting orders.

Ash kept his patience about him as he waited for the perfect opportunity, closely scrutinizing the ongoing battle between Armaldo and Aerodactyl as both prehistoric Pokemon traded attacks back and forth.

Looking to his side, Ash sighed silently in exasperation as he saw Haunter still pouting trying to look sad but looking almost terrifying, making up his mind to fix this in the bud before it became a problem Ash caught Haunter's attention before crouching down a bit and looking from side to side suspiciously, "We must be very very quiet, stay out of sight and search for an opening like true shinobi, nin nin!" Ash said in a mock whisper, placing his hand in a fake ninja hand seal.

It worked as Haunter began to giggle like crazy silently. Ash rolled his eyes as he stood up to his full height getting ready.

Both Armaldo and Aerodactyl were charging each other, Armaldo from down below and Aerodactyl from the sky. Aerodactyl was encompassed by the glowing purple and orange aura of the Giga Impact attack and Armaldo was bravely running to meet it head on claws glowing a light cyan blue.

When both Pokemon were just mere moments from impacting against one another, Ash acted.

"Haunter, Hypnosis." He ordered sharply.

"Haunter!" Haunter replied eagerly as his eyes began to glow a deep crimson and he began to wave his hands from side to side.

Unprepared for the attack, both Aerodactyl and Armaldo could do nothing to defend themselves from Haunter's will and were forced into a trance before both lagged and fell asleep, crashing straight into the ground beside each other.

Ash smiled at Haunter, "Good job." He praised his Pokemon before holding up it's Pokeball and returning it in a beam of red.

Switching Haunter's Pokeball with two empty ones on his belt, Ash launched both Pokeballs using both of his hands.

The two red and white Pokeballs hit home and opened up, absorbing both Armaldo and Aerodactyl inside in beams of red energy.

Both Pokeballs shook from side to side beside each other on the ground, perfectly synchronized. Aerodactyl, who'd sustained the most damage in the battle's Pokeball stopped first, followed closely by Armaldo's, both giving off a soft 'ding' of successful capture each.

Ash snorted, "Despite both being quite powerful, those were some of the easiest captures I've ever made." He commented to himself, "In fact I think only Caterpie was easier to catch." Ash laughed as he made his way over and picked up his new Pokemon's Pokeballs.

Grabbing his Pokedex, he hit one of the white buttons causing both Pokeballs of his newest Pokemon teleporting back to the Oak Ranch.

Ash shook his head in amusement as he put his Pokedex away and turned on his heel and began walking back towards the Pokemon Center, "I can expect a call from Professor Oak tonight I guess." Ash murmured to himself in amusement.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the thought, he continued on, not bothering to go look for Kabutops, he was sure somebody like Roark would have dealt with it by now, it had taken him longer than he thought it would to track down and catch up with both Armaldo and Aerodactyl.

* * *

When Ash finally got back to his shared room with his girlfriend at the Pokemon Center, he found Dawn already in there with an excited and giddy smile on her face.

"You'll never believe what happened!" Dawn squealed excitedly as she bounced up to her feet a Pokeball clasped firmly in her hand.

Ash raised an eyebrow and gave her a smile as he walked towards her, "What?" He inquired.

"I caught a really rare Pokemon earlier, a Kabutops!" The bluenette gushed in answer.

Ash chuckled loudly, "I caught the two Pokemon that Kabutops escaped from the museum with." The Ranger replied.

Dawn gasped at the mention of them escaping the museum, "Does that mean we'll need to return them to the museum?" She asked her tone taking a rather melancholy edge.

Ash shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile, "No need to worry." He replied with her trademark phrase, "Just keep Kabutops a secret until tomorrow and we can leave straight after my Gym Battle. While what we're doing isn't illegal, we'll probably be expected to give them back because 'it's the right thing to do'" He told his girlfriend.

Dawn sighed in relief, "Thank Arceus, Kabutops put up a hell of a fight when I tried to catch it, I didn't want all my Pokemon's hard work to go to waste." The bluenette voiced her worries aloud.

Ash gave her an amused grin as he gently took the Pokeball from her hand and set it down on the desk beside the bed, before he reached up and grasped her chin and brought her into a short but passionate kiss.

Pulling back for a second, Ash looked her in her deep blue eyes, his own eyes smoldering, "Now, let me return the favour from last night." Ash told her softly as he lowered her to the bed, before slowly descending and pushing her shirt up and kissing softly down her stomach, lower and lower towards her skirt.

* * *

The next day bright and early, Ash was standing on the opposite side of a rocky battlefield inside the Oreburgh gym of Roark the Gym Leader,

He couldn't say he was not enjoying himself, because the fact was he was enjoying himself a lot, the reason being? His beautiful girlfriend Dawn up in the stands beside Pikachu wearing a pink cheerleader outfit, pom-pom's in hand as she cheered him on.

"Good luck Ash." Roark told him.

"You too." Ash returned.

The referee standing on the podium to the side of the battlefield raised his hand in the air, "This will be a 3-on-3 battle between Roark the Oreburgh city Gym Leader and Ash of Pallet Town." He announced aloud before swiping his hand downwards through the air, "Begin!" He called out loudly.

Both Ash and Roark released their first Pokemon each.

"Geodude, I choose you!" Roark shouted as he released his Pokemon. Geodude was a Pokemon that had no legs, and it's entire body was mostly a small boulder with two muscular rock arms, one on each side.

"Turtwig, let's do this." Ash said aloud as he released his newest Grass type Pokemon.

Roark started off the battle quickly, "Geodude use Hidden Power!" The Gym leader called out.

Geodude became outlined in yellow as it hunched together. Light blue circles then appeared around Geodude's body, and when it stretched its hands at it's opponent, the circles of energy shot towards Turtwig on the other side of the battlefield.

"Block with Razor Leaf!" Ash commanded quickly.

Turtwig swung his head towards the oncoming onslaught, sending a multitude of razor sharp leaves firing from the leaves on his head.

Both attacks collided in the middle of the battlefield cancelling each other out.

"Rollout!" Roark shouted next.

Geodude tucked itself into a ball and began rolling towards Turtwig, picking up speed and getting stronger every moment.

"Energy Ball." Ash commanded sharply.

Turtwig opened his mouth forming a dark green ball of energy and shot it off right at the rapidly approaching Geodude.

Using the momentum and speed behind it, Geodude ploughed straight into the Energy Ball causing it to explode on impact, but Geodude just kept going towards Turtwig despite the damage it took from the attack.

Before Ash could order a counter, Geodude was upon Turtwig, smacking it straight in the face and sending the small Grass-Type soaring into the air.

"Follow it and finish it!" Roark shouted to his Pokemon.

Geodude rolled around and used one of the rocky outcroppings as a ramp to fire itself into the air, soaring towards Turtwig.

Ash smirked, "Now Turtwig, finish it off with Leaf Storm!" The young challenger ordered abruptly.

Turtwig recovered mid-air and held his head sky-ward calling out his name loudly, multiple glowing green leaves gathering from around the leaf on his head. The leaves began to spiral around Turtwig in a tornado like fashion before the small Grass-Type thrust his head forward, sending the cyclone of leaves spiralling towards the unprepared Geodude.

"Geodude!" Roark called out worriedly, but it was too late for any hope of a counter as the tornado of glowing green leaves crashed straight into Geodude, hitting it hard.

The super effective attack launched Geodude through the air and while Turtwig landed nimbly on the battlefield covered in some injuries, Geodude crashed harshly into the unforgiving ground and, with one last spasm as the Leaf Storm faded, Geodude lost consciousness.

"Geodude is unable to battle! Turtwig is the winner!" The referee called out.

Roark returned Geodude to his Pokeball and smiled softly at it, "Thank you for you hard work." He told the Pokeball before switching it for another.

While he did this Dawn took the opportunity to cheer extra loud, jumping up and down along with Pikachu. Ash watched her for as long as he could, but sadly needed to pay attention ad Roark started talking.

The Gym Leader looked over the battlefield at Ash, "That was a good strategy, you knew in mid-air that Rollout wouldn't be as effective, so you got Geodude in the air and finished it off quickly." Roark said to him, "But the next battle won't be as easy, it's time to take it up a notch, Onix I choose you!" Roark continued loudly.

Roark's next Pokemon appeared on the field with a loud roar. Onix was a large snake made up of large rock segments, and on the top of it's head there was a large rock outcropping in the shape of a spike or shark fin.

Ash started things off this time, "Turtwig run towards Onix." He ordered calmly.

As Turtwig began sprinting towards Onix, Roar called out, "Onix meet it halfway with Double-Edge!" The Gym Leader called out.

Onix's body became enshrouded in gold energy as it launched itself through the air towards Turtwig.

Ash smirked, "Roll underneath it and Razor Leaf!" Ash commanded quickly.

Turtwig rolled right underneath Onix's attack and as he spun he launched a multitude of leaves, causing the large rock Pokemon to cry out in pain despite being protected somewhat by the golden energy around it from it's own attack.

Roark recovered admirably though, "Use Slam when it gets to the back Onix and send it flying back to it's Trainer!" The red haired man shouted.

Onix, while roaring in pain, managed to follow through on it's orders and spun as it landed, bringing its massive stone tail up as Turtwig rolled to a stop and swung it down harshly, connecting straight with Turtwig's face and launching the tiny - in comparison - Pokemon sailing through the air, landing a few feet in front of Ash, a large bruise forming on his head as Turtwig shakily pulled himself up.

"Stealth Rock!" Roark ordered quickly

Ash ignored the attack, knowing that it was a non-damaging attack for the most part, "Synthesis now!" Ash ordered quickly.

Turtwig began to glow as he healed himself, ignoring the small white energy beams that crashed into the ground around him creating a multitude of rock slabs sticking out of the ground.

The Gym roof was closed tightly so there was no sunlight and that was causing Turtwig problems, mainly because Synthesis was healing him really slowly thanks to it.

Roark wasn't going to allow Turtwig the time to heal though, "Onix, Dragon-Breath!" He shouted almost instantly when Onix finished with Stealth Rock.

"Stand your ground, Safeguard." Ash ordered, his voice level as Onix fired a torrent of green-yellow flames towards Turtwig.

Turtwig obeyed Ash's command and dismissed the power of Synthesis, allowing a small green force field to phase into existence around him, repelling the flames of Dragon-Breath as they washed over the shield.

"Screech!" Roark literally roared as a follow up, and just as Turtwig's green force field receded, Onix blasted a large spiral of glowing blue sound waves straight at Turtwig, faster than the small Grass-Type could dodge and blasted Turtwig straight into the wall behind Ash.

Turtwig fell to the ground, leaving a Turtwig shaped dent in the wall. Shakily Turtwig began to pull himself up, but just as he reached his full height he collapsed onto his side.

"This round goes to Roark and Onix!" The referee called out.

Ash sighed as he returned Turtwig, "You did well, let the others handle the rest." He said proudly as he switched it with another Pokeball and released the Pokemon inside on the field, "Let's go Riolu!" Ash shouted.

Riolu appeared on the field, calm as can be, but was not expecting for two of the rocky outcrops to tip from the ground and crash into him with quite a bit of force. When the smoke cleared from Stealth Rock hitting Riolu. Riolu was seen standing tall despite the small injuries that littered his arms from when he blocked with them.

Ash smirked, Riolu was a Fighting type, so Rock-Type based attacks like Stealth Rock were not very effective against the little Aura user.

"Aura Sphere." Ash ordered calmly as he crossed his arms.

Riolu clasped both palms together and formed a blue sphere of energy roughly half the size of his body and launched it towards Onix.

"Dragon-Breath!" Roark countered.

Onix opened it's mouth and fired the green-yellow flames of Dragon-Breath, which connected with the Aura Sphere in the middle of the battlefield, exploding as they clashed and covering the arena in a haze of smoke.

Roark and Onix were not expecting Riolu to burst from the smoke, charging straight towards the towering figure of Onix with glowing orange arms.

"Slam!" Roark called out quickly.

Onix roared and swung it's tail towards Riolu, only for the small Aura user to jump and flip in mid-air landing on Onix's tail and begin running up the length of it's body.

"Dragon-Breath!" Roark shouted desperately.

Onix fired the intense flames down the side of it's body, but Riolu used the glowing orange arms powered by Bullet Punch to block in an X formation in front of him and plough straight through the flames.

"Force Palm." Ash ordered clearly from his side of the arena as Riolu finally got through the waves of green-yellow flames and made it to the top of Onix's body.

Riolu jumped the last few feet and came down hard, thrusting his palm straight in the center of Onix's large head. From Riolu's palm erupted a large green blast of energy. Onix roared in agony of the Super Effective attack as the large Rock type was sent flying through the air.

Riolu flipped in mid-air and began descending towards the ground when Ash called out his next move, "Finish with Aura Sphere!"

Riolu clasped both palms together and held them there, charging the Aura within him, before pulling them apart to create an Aura Sphere almost three quarters of the size of his body and launched it through the air towards Onix, landing nimbly on his toes as he did.

The larger than average – for Riolu that is – Aura Sphere sped through the air and connected with the side of Onix's body before the large behemoth could even hit the ground, the Aura Sphere exploded on contact and Onix roared in agony once more before falling silent and smashing into the ground hard enough to make the Gym shake like a mini-earthquake.

When the smoke cleared from the Rock-Type's body, Onix came into view with swirls in it's eyes and unable to continue battling.

"Onix is unable to battle, this round goes to Riolu." The referee stated loudly.

Roark sighed sadly as he returned Onix to it's Pokeball, "Job well done." He told the Pokeball softly as he switched it with his final Pokeball and released the Pokemon inside onto the battle field, "Rampardos, I choose you." The Gym leader called out his last Pokemon.

Rampardos was a large, dark-gray dinosaur-like Pokémon. Rampardos had a blue stripe on its tail and one blue stripe on each of its knees and wrists. Rampardos also had a spike on each knee. It had a blue collar on its neck with two spikes on it, Two of Rampardos's head spikes were bigger than the other two. Its red eyes were obstructed by its dome-shaped head Two short spikes sat atop this Pokémon's nose.

Ash looked Rampardos up and down before he surprised Roark by lifting up Riolu's Pokeball and returning it in a beam of red energy.

Ash noted Roark's look and decided to elaborate, "I'm not sure how strong that Rampardos is, and while I'm confident Riolu had a good chance in beating it, I brought an old friend of mine who I've not battled together with for a long time, so I'm letting him get the battle." Ash told his listening audience before he released his own third Pokemon, "Kingler, to battle." Ash stated calmly.

Kingler was a crab-like Pokémon with four legs, two arms, and two powerful pincers. The upper half of its body and its pincers were orange, while the bottom half and legs were cream colored. Kingler had spikes on its head, and had a large lower jaw with teeth-like bumps. Its left pincer was particularly larger than its right pincer.

Dawn up in the stands looked at Kingler in slight awe, "Wow, that thing looks really strong..." She muttered to herself.

"Koo kee koo kee!" Kingler cried eagerly.

Ash smirked at his Pokemon's excitement to be battling for him again, "Okay Kingler, let's start this off with CrabHammer." Ash said easily.

Kingler brought his largest claw down harshly on the ground and shot a small narrow ball of white energy straight across at Rampardos at near enough blinding speeds.

Roark only had time to blink before the attack hit Rampardos, the large dinosaur Pokemon crying out in pain from the Super Effective attack and being completely taken by surprise by the speed of the attack.

"That was so fast I almost missed it." Roark muttered to himself as Rampardos pulled itself to it's feet, a few light injuries on it but nothing to serious, "Rampardos hit back with Flamethrower!" The Rock type gym leader called out.

Rampardos opened it's mouth with a roar and sent a large torrent of white hot flames speeding across the battlefield at Kingler in reply of the earlier Crab-Hammer.

"Bubblebeam." Ash ordered calmly.

Kingler opened both claws and placed them directly in front of himself, firing a large multitude of glowing bubbles straight at the flames, clashing with them in the middle and causing the battlefield to be covered in a fine mist of condensation.

Ash, really was not expecting Rampardos to burst from the clearing mist literally flying through the air, the top of it's head glowing a deep blue, smacking straight into Kingler roughly before he could react.

Kingler stood tough though and held his ground, standing strong as his feet ground a few feet long trenches in the ground.

Ash smiled at his Pokemon's resilience, "Water Gun and then follow up with Brick Break!" The Trainer ordered sharply.

Kingler opened his mouth and fired a spiral jet of water straight at Rampardos. The prehistoric Pokemon managed to spin to the side just enough to avoid the Super Effective attack but was unprepared for Kingler to have jumped high into the air – belaying the clumsiness his body suggested – and came down hard with his largest claw glowing white, smashing it straight down on Rampardos' armored head.

Rampardos roared in pain as it fell backwards into a tumbling roll that kept going for a few metres.

Roark grit his teeth as his thoughts raged, he hadn't expected that Kingler to have more physical strength than Rampardos, but that was to be expected; Rampardos had only evolved the day before and Ash insinuated that he'd had his Kingler for years.

As Rampardos shakily pulled itself to it's feet, Roark went with the only move he knew had a high rate of being successful and not being countered, "Head Smash!" The red haired Gym Leader shouted.

Rampardos' body became surrounded by a whitish-blue aura, making it seem black and white, and it shot of in blinding speeds at the Kingler with its head pointed at the large crab like Pokemon.

"Blizzard on the floor!" Ash ordered quickly, he knew the weakness to these types of moves, he had a lot of Pokemon that knew Giga Impact and the Volt Tackle variations.

Kingler opened both claws with a snap, ignoring the rapidly approaching Rampardos, and from both pincers erupted two narrow blizzards of snow and ice, impacting against the ground Rampardos was running across and freezing it over quickly.

Rampardos, having put all of it's momentum and speed into the Head Smash slipped and crashed face first harshly into the ground and began sliding over to Kingler fast.

"Finish with Crabhammer!" Ash ordered sharply.

"Koo kee koo kee!" Kingler cried in response as he launched a glowing white claw straight down onto Rampardos' head when the large dinosaur-like Pokemon reached the Water-Type.

Rampardos roared in pain as the ground cratered beneath it and kicked up a large cloud of smoke and debris.

Seconds later the roar of pain went silent and the Gym was quiet as the smoke cleared to show Rampardos unconcious.

"Rampardos is unable to battle, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town wins the battle!" The referee cried out resolutely.

Roark returned Rampardos and gave the Pokeball a proud smile, "You've done well old friend, this loss was my fault and I'll make sure to do better next time." He told the Pokeball of his first ever Pokemon softly.

Rooting around in his pocket, Roark grabbed the contents inside and left his side of the battlefield to make his way over to Ash.

Said Ranger gave Kingler a proud smile before he returned the large crab Pokemon to his Pokeball and made his way to meet Roark halfway.

When they met at the side of the battlefield Roark held his hand out, which Ash gladly accepted and they shook hands. "Well done, you dominated that battle from the very start and countered almost every attack I made." Roark started, "It is my honor to present you with the Coal Badge." The Gym Leader finished as he held his other palm out and showed him the badge inside it.

Ash smiled and took it, "Thanks, that was a great battle." He replied.

They were interrupted by the flying missile that was Dawn Berlitz who ran up and glomped him with a giddy smile on her face, "That was amazing Ash." She told her boyfriend.

Ash laughed, but then the conversation he and Dawn had about their most recent captures came to mind and he turned to face Roark, easily in fact as if Dawn wasn't hanging from his back, "It was a pleasure meeting you Roark but Dawn and I are running late for something and we need to get going now." Ash 'apologized'.

Roark waved it off, "I understand, young love and all that jazz, am I right?" Roark asked with a wink at Ash.

Ash gave Roark a mock smug smirk, "Oh yeah." He replied arrogantly.

Dawn smacked his shoulder at the insinuation but had a small smile on her face as Ash turned on his heel and began walking towards the exit, grabbing his bag with Pikachu on his shoulder as he did, still not once showing strain from Dawn hanging from his back.

* * *

 **OMAKE**

 _ **Idea By:**_ Slicerness, 0 Jordinio 0

 _ **Written By:**_ Slicerness

 **Girl's And Their Dresses**

The newly evolved Lopunny decided she was now human enough that she could pull off wearing clothes without looking tacky or forced. As such, she spent seven hours shopping for the perfect dress. She got some strange looks; a Pokemon, possibly wild, wandering the shopping mall by herself was a rare sight, but one with a purse full of money and a comprehensive knowledge of how fashion worked? That caused quite a few of the shop owners and hired help to scratch their heads.

Lopunny's eyes sparkled as she found the _perfect_ dress to wear for the upcoming contest.

Dawn Berlitz wondered where her Lopunny had gotten off to, but paid it little mind a she continued her shopping. She warranted far less strange looks than her Pokemon - whom she had unknowingly passed by several time but ignored in her shopping zeal - but gained far more open looks of lust. If she were doing anything else she would huff at how unfair it was that she needed to leave Ash behind while she shopped, but she couldn't exactly get a good dress for her contest - and maybe some sexy underwear to surprise him with if she had time - if she brought him along.

Dawn's eyes sparkled as she found the _perfect_ dress to wear for the upcoming contest.

-Later-

"Lopunny, spotlight!" Dawn called, looking dazzling in her dress. The whole outfit was pink, aside from a white collar, a red ring that emphasized her small waist, and a series of stylish red lines on her front that contoured to her bust.

Her Pokemon appeared in a cloud of hearts, the light pink mist showing off her own dazzling dress. The whole outfit was pink, aside fr-wait this sounds very familiar.

Lopunny grinned for the crowd, but turned she her Trainer didn't issue any commands. The bunny Pokemon froze as she caught sight of what Dawn was wearing, her expression matching the already frozen Dawn.

"You're wearing my dress/Lopunny Bunbun Lop!" The two yelled at eachother.

Marian brought the microphone closer to her mouth and opened her mouth, only to end up opening and closing it several times as she, and the rest of the audience, watched the rising Coordinator prodigy from Twinleaf argue heatedly with her Pokemon over who had to go change out of their dress, completely baffled as to what she should say. She didn't need to, because the crowd was entertained enough as is and didn't need her commentary.

While Dawn had logic on her side – she was a human and couldn't just take off her dress right in front of everyone – Lopunny, the excitable Pokemon she was, was not one for patience or well though out decisions in the heat of an argument. So most could forgive the bunny Pokemon for getting fed up with the useless back and forth and using a Quick Attack to blur forward.

Dawn cried out in surprise as her dress exploded into confetti. While her dress wasn't completely destroyed, there wasn't enough left without scratch marks in it to cover her at all. Not even a second later she cried out in surprise again as she was yanked backwards before anybody could see her partly naked.

"Well, that was close." Ash grinned above her as Dawn quickly took stock of where she was.

She was currently in her boyfriend's arms, in her underwear because the tatters that had once been a dress hadn't survived whatever Pokemon of Ash's had saved her modesty. It all seemed to hit her at once what could have happened if Ash hadn't acted quickly and she wiggled free before leading him quickly into a small side room she knew was empty.

Despite his every urge telling him not to, Ash decided to ask. "Uh, what about the.." He glanced back towards the open doorway that lead to the stage.

"I have three Ribbons and we're not even halfway through the season yet. Are you arguing that you, my hero, don't want a reward for your quick thinking?" Dawn questioned.

Ash took in the sight of his girlfriend; how her frilly, skimpy underwear stuck to her like a second skin, the way her half-lidded gaze made his heart beat faster, her skin flushed with adrenaline and arousal, and wisely decided to shut the hell up.

* * *

 **OMAKE 2**

 **Idea by: Slicerness**

 **Written By: Slicerness**

Kenny gasped in delight as he read the card on the package he received in the mail;

 _From Dawn, with all my feelings._

He swooned. _Finally_ , Dawn could see he was the better man! He would need to see her right away, so she could escape from that brute Ketchum. But first...

He slowly lifted the lid off the gift, all the while picture what could be inside. Instead of happiness though, all he felt was confusion as he gazed into the oddly dark interior of the box. What was that chittering sou-

It was about that second a feral Zigzagoon, foaming heavily at the mouth, launched itself out of the abyss within the gift and latched itself into Kenny's face; becoming a whirlwind of teeth and claws in a blink.

"AH! AH! AH! OH ARCEUS!" He screeched as he was mauled.

Nurse Joy whistled as the chubby Trainer rolled past her, his face obscured in a tornado of bestial fury.

"MY FACE! AH! AH! WHY!" Kenny continued screaming as the other Trainers in the Pokemon Center ignored his plight as he rolled around the Center, slamming into wall and tabled legs every few seconds.

That Zigzagoon would either tire itself out or get sick of the taste, so it was for the best they not get involved, right?


	9. Chapter 9

"There ya go buddy." Ash said with a smile as he handed an open bottle of Ketchup to Pikachu sitting on the table beside him as he made breakfast for Dawn. While Ketchup wasn't exactly healthy, Ash had a terrible habit of giving into Pikachu's pouts and every and now and then he let the small yellow mouse Pokemon gorge himself on a bottle. Although he tended to give Pikachu less and less each time because he was trying to wean the Electric type Pokemon off of the red substance. He was having little success, the minimum he could gave his best friend was a half full bottle before Pikachu just looked at him with that heartbroken betrayed look of his, prompting Ash to give him more to make him stop.

All the Pokemon were already out and enjoying their own meal off to the side, although there was a couple of new arrivals because Ash had made some changes to his team before he and Dawn left Oreburgh City after winning his first Sinnoh Region Gym badge.

He'd kept most of his Sinnoh Pokemon captures with him for now, those four being Riolu, Chimchar, Turtwig and Staravia. But in addition to those four he'd brought along another two Pokemon from the Oak Ranch, those two being Sceptile and his rather moody Fearow, the one he'd caught just before starting his Sinnoh Journey so that he could finally relieve his Pidgeot of the position protecting the many Pidgey and Pidgeotto back at the forest near Pallet Town.

He may have been able to carry 13 Pokemon now thanks to his experience as a Trainer, but that many Pokemon at a time could be rather rowdy and hard to control, not to mention expensive as all hell to feed so he preferred to stick with between 6 to 9, not as little as the 6 Pokemon restriction Trainers not as experienced as him got, but not to many that he'd have a hard time controlling them all unless he was planning for a mass training session.

His reasons for bringing Sceptile and Fearow were several fold, the most prominent being both of them helping Turtwig and Staravia. Turtwig knew quite a few powerful moves but the small Grass type needed to learn to utilize it's moves more effectively, and that's were Sceptile came in. Sceptile was one of his most powerful Pokemon and knew how to use his moves to the utmost efficiency, given that he won most of his battles using weak powered moves like Quick Attack and Bullet Seed to win extremely hard battles all through Ash's Hoenn Journey. The young Trainer was sure that without Sceptile his win over Norman Maple, May's father, would not have been possible. After all, the man was said to be a serious contender for joining the Hoenn Elite Four.

Fearow was here to help Staravia learn to fly better. Fearow had been battling an extremely fast foe in Pidgeot for years and had learned many ways to manoeuvre in flight to counter because it couldn't keep up with Pidgeot in the speed department.

He absently stirred the Pancake mix in a bowl as he continued his thoughts. He'd sent Drapion, Armaldo and Aerodactyl back to the Oak ranch because they needed to get accustomed to life outside their previous environments. Armaldo and Aerodactyl were being studied by Professor Oak and being helped adjusting to living in this time period where everything had changed, Ash certainly could have done it himself, but it would have taken a lot more effort with the amount of travelling he and Dawn did.

Drapion was meeting the rest of his Pokemon and learning that life without Hunter J was definitely better. The large dual Poison/Dark Type had a rough time of it with the merciless silver haired woman, but despite it's fearsome looks and battle prowess, Drapion was actually a very sweet and gentle Pokemon, and according to Professor Oak, he enjoyed helping out the other Pokemon back at the ranch. Drapion seemed to be over-protective of Ash's Pokemon because of the Trainer telling Drapion all about he and his Pokemon all being a big family, and Drapion was now a part of that. Professor Oak had told him that Aerodactly got rowdy and ended up hitting his Torkoal with a powerful Hyper Beam and going loose on a wild bender again, and Drapion had responded in kind, protecting Ash's Pokemon – even if they didn't need protecting – and blasting Aerodactly in the face with it's own Hyper Beam before knocking the prehistoric Pokemon out with a powerful Aqua Tail attack.

Ash was broken from his musings as he prepared breakfast when his beautiful blue haired girlfriend walked out of his large blue tent with a yawn, already dressed for the day. Dawn had forgone sleeping in her own tent as of late, preferring to bunk with him, which was a very enjoyable experience, Ash decided. He could see now why Brock was so over-the-top when they met a beautiful girl, especially after feeling Dawn's soft curves molded against his body as they slept.

"Morning." Ash greeted his girlfriend with a smile as he moved the frying pan onto their makeshift stove, courtesy of a stand for the pots/pans and a small but hot fire complimentary of Chimchar's better control over it's Flamethrower attack.

Dawn tiredly rubbed her eyes as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, awaiting breakfast. "Morning." She replied with another sleepy yawn.

Looking off at the Pokemon, Dawn cocked her head at her own newest addition, "How's he been this morning?" The bluenette inquired of her boyfriend.

Ash looked over to where she was pointing and his eyes zeroed on Kabutops. The Pokemon had been quite rowdy and disobedient when they let it out to feed it after they left Oreburgh City, but Ash had experience with Pokemon like Kabutops, it was scared and unfamiliar with where it was or who it was with.

It took him the better part of two hours to calm the riled Pokemon down, and while it was tense it had seemingly taken being captured by Dawn with a grain of salt, and during the training sessions they'd had in the past two days while on their way to Floaroma Town, Kabutops had listened to Dawn's commands with precise timing. He had a lot of potential.

"Not bad, though he still seems a bit tense around the other Pokemon." Ash replied, nodding to the way Kabutop's spine was stiff and upright, keeping an eye on what he thought were the biggest threats, those being Sceptile and Ursaring because of their size compared to the other Pokemon giving them a more threatening appearance, especially Ursaring who tended to look surly and bored unless he was training or battling, the large Normal Type loved to battle just like many Pokemon Ash had of his own, the most prominent being Charizard and Sceptile.

Dawn sighed and laid her head on her arms on the table, "I hope Kabutops learns to relax and trust us soon, it would be so cool to use him in my next contest." She said, her blue eyes alive with giddiness at the thought, "Everyone would be so surprised and impressed that I have a Pokemon as rare and powerful as him." She finished and lifted her head, her deep blue eyes meeting Ash's amused amber.

Smiling at her slightly raised spirits, Ash finally finished cooking the Pancakes walked over to Dawn at the table, frying pan in hand, and scooped the large pancake onto her plate. Setting the pan in the basin he had filled with water heated by Chimchar's Flamethrower, he grabbed an Oran berry from one of the containers on the table and crushed it down into crumbs and sprinkling it over Dawn's pancakes for extra flavour and to make the meal healthier, another trick he'd learned from Brock.

"Don't worry about it." Ash soothed his dejected girlfriend as he bent his neck down to peck her on the lips, "Pokemon are complex and can take a while to warm up to you."

Dawn sighed but smiled at him as she began to eat another amazingly tasty breakfast cooked for her by her boyfriend.

"You know a while back, someone once told me that Gyarados are very hard to train, but when you raise them right and with affection they're the most loyal and trustworthy Pokemon around." Ash began as he started to clean up the items he used to prepare breakfast, they used paper plates – a biodegradable kind - because it saved time, so Dawn could just toss her plate away when she was done. "But that's completely wrong." He finished 100% in confidence.

Dawn blinked, it seemed like just a random tidbit, but before she could question Ash on it her boyfriend continued, his voice passionate enough to send pleasurable tingles down her spine. Ash had done it alot when he spoke about Pokemon, and what he had learned of them over his years of travelling and training.

"There can be no 'most loyal or trustworthy' kind of Pokemon." Ash began, "Because if you raise and train a Pokemon with all your love and affection, that Pokemon will love you back in return and trust in you as it's Trainer, no matter what they are." He finally finished once again, looking at Pikachu who was still happily sucking away obliviously at the Ketchup container that was almost empty. Finishing off his passionate tirade, Ash placed a hand gently on Pikachu's head and affectionately rubbed his partner Pokemon's ears.

Pikachu finally stopped trying to get anything out of the near empty bottle and leaned back into Ash's hand, giving off a soft and pleasurable cry of, "Chaaa."

Dawn felt her face heat up as she looked at Pokemon and Trainer and the amazingly tight bond they shared. She couldn't help but feel awed by her boyfriend at times, he was just so amazing with his Pokemon it was unreal. He connected with them all despite all of their many different personalities, from the calm and collected Sceptile, to the overly emotional Torkoal, even his Fearow that was extremely surly and standoff-ish with her and the other Pokemon always seemed to perk up and enjoy Ash's presence whenever he was around, showing just how much he loved his Pokemon and they loved him in return.

Dawn had no doubt in her mind that even his most inexperienced Pokemon, like Turtig or Chimchar would willingly go up against the strongest of Legendaries if it meant pleasing Ash, that was just how much they cared.

Dawn was broken from her heated gaze when he finally finished packing their stuff away, tents and all. "Right," Ash said as he stood up and patted his cargo pants of any dust and dirt that had gathered when he was kneeling down to take the tent down, "We'll do some training for an hour or so with the Pokemon and then set off and we can probably be in Floaroma Town by dinner time." He continued with a cheerful smile as he bounded off over to the Pokemon, Pikachu jumping onto his shoulder along the way with a happy cry of "Pika Pi!".

Dawn blinked, "Wow I hadn't realized I was staring for so long." The bluenette commented to herself with a slight blush. Standing up she looking over at Ash and couldn't help but giggle, as he'd ran over, Chimchar, Turtwig and Staravia had joined in with Pikachu and dogpiled Ash, forcing him to the ground as they played around, and it wasn't to long before even her Buneary, Piplup and Ambipom joined in with happy cries.

Dawn shook her head, "Even my own Pokemon love Ash." She said to herself, looking over the rest of the Pokemon from Kabutops who was looking at them as if they were insane because he still didn't understand such interactions, to Ursaring and Sceptile, who ignored it for the most part preferring to lean back with their eyes closed, and act 'cool'. Though Dawn had to admit that Sceptile pulled it off really well as the large bipedal Grass Type leaned against a tree, arms crossed, eyes closed and a twig hanging from his mouth like a toothpick.

Finally her eyes landed on Fearow, "Pfft!" Dawn chuckled into her palm. Fearow was glaring angrily at all the Pokemon dogpiling and playing around with Ash, it's eyes filled envy because it wanted all of Ash's time to itself.

* * *

Ash smiled as he read his Trainer balance on his Pokedex. When Trainers battled it registered on both of their Pokedex's, and the winner gained credits from the other Trainer's Pokedex when they won.

The Pokedex calculated the experience of a Trainer and the Pokemon they owned, and then, using them together, finally came up with a total balance of credits that the loser would forfeit, should they lose that is.

So if a 'high level' Trainer challenged a new Trainer and won, the new Trainer would probably only need to give up some pocket change, whereas if the high level Trainer lost for whatever reason, he would probably be handing over a small fortune. It was a system designed to prevent 'farming' the new and inexperienced for money; one that worked rather well.

Closing his Pokedex, Ash slipped his Pokedex into his backpocket and looked to his beautiful companion at his side.

Dawn had spent most of their walk towards Floaroma town with her hand intertwined with Ash's own and enjoying the sights. That is, when he wasn't battling passerby Trainers. He'd already battled and defeated 6 wandering trainers and felt like he had a good streak going.

He used Chimchar and Turtwig for most of the battles, but Dawn had to say when one of the Trainers challenged Ash to a 4 on 4 battle and Ash sent out Sceptile, She was in awe of the sheer speed the Pokemon possessed.

Sceptile had taken down all four of the trainers Pokemon with barely a scratch at all. The man's first Pokemon, an Altaria, was taken down with just one Leaf Blade by Sceptile. The next, this time a Rapidash was driven dizzy as Sceptile blurred all around it, dodging the large stallion Pokemon's every attempt to land an attack easily before coming down from above and felling the Fire type with a Dragon Claw attack.

Then Sceptile had made some odd cries and gestures about the Trainer to Ash and the honorary Pokemon Ranger seemed to understand exactly what Sceptile was implying, the Grass Pokemon wanted a challenge, and this trainer wasn't supplying it.

So Ash had told the man he could use both of his final Pokemon in a 2 on 1 against Sceptile. The man's Luxio and Floatzel actually managed to land a combined Discharge and Water Gun on Sceptile, but the bipedal Grass Pokemon blocked with both arms crossed over his chest and came out with nothing but a few scratches, impressive even if both attacks were not as effective on a grass type like itself. And then Sceptile had literally blown both Pokemon away with an amazingly powerful Leaf Storm attack, the tornado of leaves was truly massive to Dawn, she'd never seen a Pokemon's attack be that big before.

It still surprised her just how incredibly powerful almost all of Ash's Pokemon were, it really brought it into perspective for Dawn when Ash told her that Pikachu and Charizard easily outstripped the rest in terms of power, only Sceptile coming close to them, and then Mewtwo was even stronger still.

Which made another thought cross her mind. If Ash's Pokemon were that powerful, yet he said that only Pikachu and Charizard may be ready to challenge some of someone like Cynthia's Pokemon – and according to her boyfriend that was a big if – what kind of monsters were _her_ Pokemon?

Which brought another question to the bluenette's mind.

"Hey Ash," Dawn said aloud to get her boyfriends attention. When he turned to look at her she continued, "You've told me all about most of your Pokemon and how strong you think, in theory, they are compared to a Champion like Cynthia's Pokemon, but what about Mewtwo? Wouldn't he be a great help against a Champion, seeing as he's your strongest Pokemon." She inquired.

Ash shook his head as he replied, "It just wouldn't feel right to me, using a Legendary Pokemon against a normal Pokemon just doesn't sit right because of how unfair it is to the other Trainer. They've worked hard with their Pokemon, shed sweat, tears and blood to get where they are, only for me to unfairly swipe victory from them because I use a Legendary Pokemon that is naturally obscenely powerful? It's not right. Only someone who truly doesn't believe in themselves would use a Legendary, or maybe even a team of Legendaries, like that." Ash shook his head again at the thought, no self respecting Trainer would use a Legendary Pokemon like that, it completely went against the reason for being a Trainer.

Trainers were supposed to catch and raise their Pokemon, through the joys and hardships, and work until they reached their goal. Capturing a Legendary Pokemon and completely skipping what Trainers stood for just to be some kind of greedy, self centered glory hound was pathetic and shallow.

It was why he'd never used Mewtwo in an official battle and the Legendary Psychic type understood and respected his reasons.

Ash honestly couldn't fathom why he would just disregard all of his Pokemon's hard work and training to get strong enough to win battles on their own merit for him to use a Legendary Pokemon and unfairly swipe victories.

It was pathetic and only someone who couldn't cut it as a trainer would do it because of their greed and pathetic skills at being a trainer and doing what all trainers were supposed to strive to be able to do; befriend any Pokemon they wanted and raise them to be strong.

Any Pokemon could be powerful with enough training, whether it was a Butterfree, a Tyranitar or even small and cute Pokemon who didn't want to evolve like his beloved partner Pikachu. That was what a Trainers true worth was.

And he aimed to rise to the top and become the best, a Pokemon Master. And no Pokemon Master would ever sink so low as to taking a shortcut like capturing Legendary Pokemon to use in official tournaments.

Ash blinked as he stopped monologuing. That was for villains and angsty weirdo's. Not to mention he'd just repeated himself about four times, so that was probably enough. He just felt very passionately about the issue.

"Plus." Ash continued, "Why would I ever disregard all of my Pokemon's hard work to become strong and win battles for me by using a shortcut like battling in League battles with a Legendary Pokemon?" He voiced a section of his monologue rhetorically with a toothy grin.

To throw one last comment in; it was also supremely foolish to announce that you had a Legendary Pokemon in your possession, as they would then need to constantly be on guard from people attempting to steal said Pokemon.

Dawn smiled back fondly in return to her boyfriends declaration, his words were so Ash-like that she wasn't even surprised. He was an all around nice guy, loved Pokemon immensely and followed his own beliefs to a tee, never letting anybody sway him from them.

' _Although,'_ Dawn thought, ' _It's hard to believe he can resist the temptation to use Mewtwo and completely dominate all who stand in his way on his path to becoming a Pokemon Master._ ' She wasn't sure she could resist the temptation herself, it had to have been a great deal harder for her boyfriend she mused, he'd actually seen Mewtwo and other Legendary Pokemon in action.

"How far off are we from Floaroma Town anyway?" Dawn asked. They'd been walking for hours now, only stopping for Ash's battles along the way and a quick lunch break about two or three hours back.

Ash looked at the poketch on his wrist, having used the GPS application to tell where they were going.

"Not long now, the Poketch says at the speed we're walking it should take just over another hour to get there." Ash responded with a grin at his girlfriend, who huffed in mock irritation at him. He'd been travelling for years, walking from place to place for so long that he'd gotten used to walking great distances but his girlfriend on the other hand...

Dawn had rarely ever walked great distances on foot, and being the kinda girl that liked to laze around in hot afternoon days, well it didn't quite agree with her quite as well as it did with him one could say.

"You know," Ash began, "We don't need to walk from place to place, I could always just get Pidgeot to fly us around, we'd make it to Gym Battles and Contests much quicker and it would give us a lot more time to train our Pokemon." He told his girlfriend, soothingly rubbing her hand and wrist with his palm.

Dawn perked up at the mention of that, but after a moments thought shook her head, "While it would be a great relief for my feet," She hinted, "I would feel like we're abusing Pidgeot by using him as a pack mule to fly us all over the place. Not to mention when we travel on foot we see so many great sights, it would be a shame to miss them all because I was lazy." Dawn smiled at him as she finished, coaxing his hand back into her own. Despite it being a pain in her feet she really enjoyed spending what she considered romantic walks through the country sides with her boyfriend.

Ash chuckled, "Well, alright." He answered, "But that doesn't mean we can't do it sometimes, flying on Pidgeot is a real experience that you can never forget." It was true, Pidgeot was such a smooth flyer, even when the large majestic bird was going at speeds close to mach 2 that Ash felt like he was gliding on the clouds when he rode the Bird Pokemon.

They were interrupted from further conversation by a rough, indignant male voice.

"Gahh!" The rough male voice cried, "It's you! Ash Ketchum!"

"Hmm?" Both boyfriend and girlfriend looked up, and were met with the sight of a tall, tanned man wearing a red bandana, purple shorts and an open yellow vest that had three Pokeball strapped on each side of it, revealing a toned and tanned bare torso underneath.

He was staring at Ash crazily and had a finger pointed out, kind of reminding Ash of his Primeape when it was excited, rather monkeyish.

Ash studied the man's appearance, he kinda looked like a Team Aqua wannabe with that whole pirate look he had going for him, but no, he was rather familiar looking. Where had he seen him before?

"Do you know him Ash?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Err... maybe?" Ash replied uncertainly, "He looks familiar, but I can't for the life of me remember exactly who he is."

"WHAAAAT!" The man shouted in outrage, his face red with anger, "How dare you forget me, the great and powerful Trainer Raymond, especially after you humiliated and defeated me so thoroughly!?" The now named Raymond continued, jumping up and down and pointing at Ash, now reminiscent of the way Monferno's acted when excited, sorta like a baboon.

Mewtwo's voice filtered into Ash's mind, communicating straight from his Pokeball as he rested, ' _He's the Trainer you were battling a few years ago when I was having my reconnaissance Fearow scout for talented Trainers. He was who you defeated, rather easily I might add, and how you caught my interest with how skilled you were for one so young.'_

Ash snapped his fingers in realization, "Ah, now I remember you!" The Pokemon ranger grinned, ' _Thanks Mewtwo.'_ He thought back to his Pokemon, receiving a warm pulse of affection in the back of his mind from Mewtwo before the Legendary clone of Mew receded from his mind and back to his rest, as a feline species related Pokemon Mewtwo enjoyed to sleep many hours a day despite his mental discipline.

"Aha! I knew you could never forget the mighty Raymond!" The bandana wearing man grinned in triumph.

Ash blinked at that, "But didn't I defeat you easily?" He deadpanned, "Bulbasaur and Squirtle won their battles against your Donphan and Machamp without taking much Damage at all, and then Pikachu took out your Golem, Pinsir and Venemoth with one Thunderbolt right after." He continued, his voice flat, dry and slow, as if talking to an idiot.

"GRAAHH! How dare you!" Reymond roared angrily as he roughly grabbed one of the Pokeballs from his vest and pointed it at Ash, "That's it, Pokemon battle, right now! I'll teach your arrogant ass a lesson!" He shouted with a shit eating grin on his face, assured of his victory already.

Ash waved the man off, "Fine fine, we'll have a 1 on 1 and no losing your temper and sending out the rest of your team when you lose this time." Ash replied, causing Raymonds nostrils to flare, alot like that of a Tauros about to go on a rampage.

Dawn had been watching the interaction between Ash and this Raymond guy in amusement, she giggled as she caught the amused glint in Ash's amber eyes, he really knew how to get under people's skin, even Paul couldn't stay cold, calm and uncaring when Ash decided to rile him up.

"Alright, but don't take too long, I want to get to the Pokemon Center at Floaroma Town before nightfall." The blue haired coordinator told her boyfriend.

Ash grinned at her and leaned over to peck her on the lips, placing his hands on her waist as he did so, "Right, I'll check out his moves and then go in for the kill straight away." Ash replied.

Dawn grinned as he leaned back from the short kiss, "Good boy." She praised, "Do it fast enough and I might just give you a treat tonight when we book our room at the Pokemon Center." Dawn whispered to him with a sultry smile as she reached up and began to gently rub his shoulders.

Ash growled huskily, allowing one of his hands to slide down and underneath her skirt to cup one of the luscious round globes of her derrière, "Oh, and what might that be?" He inquired.

Dawn grinned mischievously, placing both hands on his chest, leaning forward and whispering, "That..." She began softly, "Is a surprise." She finished, using her hand's position on his chest to push him away.

Ash chuckled in reply, "I'll hold you to that you know." He told his girlfriend with a grin of his own.

Dawn just grinned right back, "Oh I plan on it."

Before their flirting could go any further Raymond butted in, "Oi oi! Move yer fuckin' ass man! You can play kissy face with your girl after my Pokemon pounds yours into the ground." The Team Aqua wannabe - as Ash had dubbed him in his mind – growled at them.

"Yeah yeah." Ash waved him off again, not at all threatened by the older Trainer. Taking his place on the opposite side of the large path they were on from Raymond, Ash grasped one of the Pokeballs from his belt, "Guess I'll go first then, let's go Staravia!" He called out as he released the rather smallish Flying Pokemon from its Pokeball.

Staravia appeared with a harry cry of, "Star!" Flapping his wings to stay floating in the air, ready and willing to battle for Ash.

"Pfft!" Raymond snorted before bursting into a full bellied laughter, "Wow, your Pokemon must be weaker than I thought if you're sending out something as pathetic as a Staravia to battle _me_!" He managed to gasp out between laughter.

Staravia ignored the insults easily, and Ash just smiled bemusedly, Pokemon didn't need to evolve to become strong after all, it took a bit more time and effort, but un-evolved Pokemon could be just as strong if not stronger than their evolved forms if they trained enough. Raymond assumed because Staravia didn't gain their more powerful trait until they were fully evolved and became a Starptor, that his Pokemon was weak. He was in for a shocking surprise.

After calming down – albeit giving off the odd snicker at Ash's choice of Pokemon – Raymond finally released the Pokemon from within the Pokeball in his hand in a flash of white energy, "Crush that little weakling Granbull!" The bandanna wearing man shouted as he let loose his Pokemon.

Granbull appeared in front of Raymond growling and snarling menacingly, pawing back one foot through the path as if to charge like a Tauros or Nidoking. Granbull was a purple bulldog-like Pokémon that was capable of standing upright. It's most notable feature was the Pokemon's particularly pronounced lower jaws. If eclipsed by its more prominent lower jaws, Granbull also had two small fangs visible on its upper jaw. Granbull's ears were flat and curved in surface, and it's nose a pitch black. It had a black collar around its neck with two small white patterns on it, and two band-like black markings on it's muscular arms.

Raymond, as Ash expected, fired straight into attacking without a moments pause, "Let's go Granbull, Thunderbolt!" Raymond barked at his Pokemon – sounding surprisingly like the Bull-dog Pokemon – all the while pointing his index finger at Staravia dramatically.

Ganbull growled as it's body lit up like a light, electricity arcing from all over it's body before it fired off a concentrated yellow burst of it almost as thick as Granbull was wide soaring at Staravia.

"Evade." Ash said simple. Staravia obeyed instantly and barrel rolled to the side, righting itself easily in the same mothing, easily dodging the arc of electricity, "And now, Aerial Ace." Ash followed up, simply, once again. He wanted to test the waters, see what level this Granbull was at and how well it reacted to damage.

Staravia dived, descending upon Granbull at breakneck speeds as his body was covered in white streaks of energy. Before Granbull could react Staravia was upon it, colliding in a full bodied tackle that sent Granbull soaring back, bouncing on it's back against the ground a few times before rolling to a stop, giving off a loud yip of pain as it did so.

Staravia right after landing the textbook perfect Aerial Ace attack, climbed back up with a sharp and powerful flap of his smallish sized wings.

Ash looked Granbull over with a critical eye as the Normal Type Pokemon pulled itself to it's feet with a growl. It had a few scuff marks and a small bruise forming on it's chest where Staravia landed his attack, but other than that it looked fine and ready for more.

Still, Ash could tell just from the power of that Thunderbolt, and how despite its immense size Granbull was taken right off it's feet that, Granbull while fully evolved and having more physical prowess than Staravia was just barely above the smallish bird Pokemon's level, if even that, and from it's reaction to Staravia speed, that Granbull was not a fast Pokemon and was more used to dealing and battling with less mobile opponents that couldn't dodge it's attacks as easily as Staravia did.

Raymond growled, "Lucky shot kid, but this time I'm taking you down!" He ground out with gritted teeth, "Granbull, Hyper Beam!" Raymond ordered with a dramatic shout. From his facial expression, Ash deduced that he honestly thought this attack would end the entire battle.

Ash snorted, maybe a rookie would be overwhelmed by a Hyper Beam, as it was a fairly intimidating move, but having multiple Pokemon that knew the attack and variations of it gave Ash insight on how the attack worked, and a Granbull at this level had no chance in hell of out-manoeuvring the counter strategies he'd come up with over his years as a Trainer for this type of moment.

Granbull opened it's mouth, allowing those present to see as a small orange orb of power beginning to form and condense inside it's mouth, a moment later with a huff Granbull jutted it's head forward and fired a large orange beam of deadly power raging towards Staravia.

Not even a second later, Ash snapped into action, ready to finish this now with the most powerful move he'd spent over two weeks teaching to Staravia and helping perfect, it would have taken longer but thankfully Pidgeot was a great help. He'd only used it once in battle on a Crobat so far, that battle having given the dual Flying/Normal type the motivation to evolve from Starly to Staravia.

"Fly right beneath the attack and use the powerful winds it's causing to gain speed and momentum, and then take it down with Brave Bird." Ash commanded instantly.

Staravia pulled his wings taut against his body, diving underneath the large orange beam of power and was pushed forward, flying far faster than he could have done naturally on his own as he dived towards Granbull like a missile. A second later flames burst out around Staravias body before fading, becoming a bright blue glowing aura that covered the entirety of Staravias body. By the time the Aura had flared up over Staravia, the small Pokemon was roughly 10 metres and closing in from Granbull and the Hyper beam dwindled into nothing but smalls wisps of orange energy that began to dissipate into nothing.

Granbull could do nothing to dodge or defend thanks to the recharge period that came with using Hyper Beam or its variations when it wasn't mastered to the highest extent.

And thus, Staravia collided with Granbull without pause, an explosion firing up from the point of impact and creating a large black cloud of smoke.

A second later, Staravia burst from the top, wincing with a squawk of pain as light blue sparks ran up Staravias wings and causing the recoil damage that came with those who used Brave Bird but had not used it for long periods of time for their body to become adjusted to the use of it and receive no further damage.

That was the main reason Ash wanted Staravia to work on the attack, so he could use the incredibly powerful move without the drawback. Not to mention it was just plain good training for overcoming pain and putting it out of your mind.

When the smoke cleared, Granbull was revealed laying in a small crater shaped around it's body, the Normal type Pokemon's eyes were in swirls indicating that it was unconscious and no longer able to continue battling.

"Nooo!" Raymond screamed in despair, falling to his knees, dramatically, once again.

"Starrraaaaavia!?" Staravia squawked once again, his voice layered with surprise and curiousness. The squawk alerted Ash and Dawn to Staravia and they looked up just in time to watch Staravia grow a bright white, but just as the glow started, it faded away again and Ash could almost feel himself gaping. It was way too soon for Staravia to already be strong enough to evolve into Staraptor, but the bird Pokemon almost evolved again! He had no idea Staravia was already that strong.

"Staravia!" The bird Pokemon crowed in victory, ignoring that strange happening as nothing important.

"Way to go buddy!" Ash cheered to his Pokemon as Dawn whooped in delight with a great big smile on her face. Ash held his arm up and Staravia landed upon it gleefully puffing his chest up in pride. The teen guessed he just must have been training Staravia harder than he thought, but then again Staravia was probably feeling overshadowed by how much more powerful Pidgeot, Fearow, Swellow and Noctowl were than he was and was giving it his all to evolve quicker so as to not disappoint Ash, somehow thinking that he would be disappointed that his Pokemon was weaker than his other ones. He made a mental note to talk to Staravia about it, make sure there weren't any misconceptions. For all he knew the bird Pokemon might have simply wanted to reach his next evolution as a personal goal.

Ash chuckled in amusement and tickled his Pokemon's chest feathers, receiving a noise of pleasure before he lifted up Staravia's Pokeball and returned him in a beam of red energy, "Way to go buddy, take a nice long rest." Ash told his Pokemon with a proud smile.

"You bastard cheat!" Raymond brought their attention back to him with a rage filled scream, grasping his five other Pokeballs between his hands, a crazed look in his eye, "There's no way a shitty little Staravia could have beaten my awesome Granbull, go everyone!" He continued to scream, as he tossed the Pokeballs into the air and released all of his other Pokemon in multiples flashes of bright light.

Ash raised an eyebrow, it seemed Raymond had gotten a whole new team since he last battled him. Standing in front of him and Dawn and advancing on them menacingly was a Crawdaunt, which was rather typical of a Team Aqua wannabe like him. Crawdaunt was a large, mostly red crustacean Pokémon. It have three pairs of limbs in total: two pincers with spikes protruding from the edges and tan-colored lower sides of the claws, one pair of legs that resembled Ash's Corpishs own with small spikes, and a two-clawed back pair that looked almost elephantine. It possessed two blue stripes on its chin that were could be mistaken for a pair of lips. Lower on it's tan-colored underside was a pattern of angular red shapes, separating the upper portion of Crawdaunts underside from the lower portion. On the top of its head was a yellow star-shaped object, Crawdaunt had circular eyes with small pupils in dark sockets, and a pocketing in its shell below its eye resembling 'bags'. On the lower part of its lobster-like tail was a triangular patch of yellow.

An altaria. Altaria resembled a large blue phoenix-like Pokémon with a long neck and white cheeks. The feathers of its body made it resemble a cumulus cloud and two long blue feathers extended from the back of its head. Altaria's blue feet had four toes, three forward and one backward, and it had five tail feathers, the ones to the sides being longer than the inner ones.

Beside the Altaria was a Mightyena. Mightyena was a large Hyena like Pokemon. Its body was a mixture of black and gray coloured fur, with black coloration on its lower legs, clawed feet, and tail. Mightyena had dark, triangular streak patterns below its eyes, which had yellow sclera and red irises. Mightyena had rhombus-shaped ears with dark insides, gray paw pads, and noses that were red in coloration. It had eyebrow-like extensions on its head from the black, shaggy 'mantle' of fur on its back.

Up next was a Gallade. It had a white lower body that consisted of bold rounded hips with strong legs. its torso was thin and coloured in a balance between the green of his upper body, and the white of his lower body. Sharp red hornlike protrusions stuck out of the chest and back. Gallade's arms were shaped like tonfas, with extendible blades in the elbows. Its head resembled a gladiator's helmet, with a white face and a light-teal coloured head crest and had spikes on the side of its face.

And the 5th and final Pokemon attempting to advance upon Ash and Dawn menacingly was a Hitmonlee. Hitmonlee was a Pokémon shaped similar to both a human and an egg. Primarily brown, Hitmonlee had cream-colored, segmented arms and legs, with three fingers and three claw-like toes respectively. The muscles on it's legs were akin to a coiled spring, being able to freely expand and contract. These muscles were more accurate than it's arms, allowing it – Ash knew - to perform powerful knee and kick attacks. Hitmonlee had almond-shaped eyes with black rings around them, and it's feet had yellow coloration on it's ankles and soles, the Pokemon appeared to lack ears or a nose.

Dawn reached for her Pokeballs, ready to battle the Pokemon and defeat the, but Ash held up a hand and halted Dawn in her place as he let out an amused chuckle, "Well well, this is almost identical to what you did when I beat you last time." The teen stated his voice filled with amusement, his eyes possessing a hard glint in them.

"What?" Raymond blurted out stupidly, but Ash shook his head and didn't deign him with an answer as he looked to his partner, who tiredly climbed up onto his shoulder from his sleeping place in Ash's backpack.

"Pikachu," Ash said simply getting his partner Pokemon to look at him questioningly, "Thunderbolt."

Pikachu nodded and launched himself up into the air from Ash's shoulder, his body covering in a bright yellow aura of power before he – with absolutely no charge time – unleashed a massive tower of electricity that split into five smaller but still giant arcs of lightning, that in the blink of an eye roared down upon the five Pokemon, causing each and every one of them to squeal out in pain before collapsing under the power of Pikachu's outrageously powerful attack and falling unconscious thanks to the multitude of burns that their bodies were scalded with.

"NOOO! He did it to me again!" Raymond cried out, crying rivers of tears from his eyes as he pounded the ground with a fist, "It's not fair! Not fair! Not fair!" He whined over and over like a petulant child having a temper tantrum.

" _ **Winner of the 6 on 6 battle between Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town Age: 14 and Raymond Lavinski of Cherrygrove City Age: 22, is Ash Ketchum... Calculating winnings... Calculating... done... Ash Ketchum receives 8903 PokeDollars in total.**_ " His Pokedex chimed in from his back pocket before beeping as the winnings were received and added to his balance on his Pokedex.

Ash snickered; that was rather stupid of Raymond. The higher level of the battle the higher the pay-out for the loser, and Raymond, like an idiot, went and made it into a full 6 on 6 battle on accident because he – a grown man – was having a petty little temper tantrum.

Ash turned to his girlfriend, pleased with the outcome of the battle and completely ignoring the man bawling like a child, "Ready to go?" He asked as Pikachu climbed up and over his shoulder to return to his resting place inside Ash's backpack and have a nice nap, hopefully one that wouldn't be disturbed again until dinner.

Dawn smiled bemusedly at her boyfriend offering her his arm. "Yup, let's go." She chirped in reply as she slid her arms around his, smirking as she saw him jolt when her breasts were pressed against his bicep, before she dragged him off.

She supposed he finished that battle up very quickly and thus he very much deserved the surprise she had in store for him.

They left, completely ignoring the figure of Raymond crying and bashing the ground, shouting all kinds of obscenities about way Ash beating him was 'so unfair' and how much he was cheating.

* * *

"And here is your room key." Nurse Joy said with a pleasant smile as she handed the room key over to Dawn, who was up at the front desk booking her and her boyfriends room for the night.

"Thanks Nurse Joy." Dawn chirped gratefully as she accepted card that unlocked their room's door lock mechanism.

Ash told Dawn to go on ahead, grabbing a quick bathroom break before he slowly made his way to their room, his mind whirling as to what his 'surprise' would be.

Just as he reached the hallway containing his room he heard his girlfriend's sexy growl. Well, it was sexy to him at least, her using it when he wasn't around meant she was being bothered by someone, so he hurried on ahead, only to see a brown haired boy talking to Dawn. The boy had the body type he'd seen often, a sort of half pudgy, half in shape body that the lazier Trainers developed. Considering the boy had a Prinplup and an Alakazam by his side he probably used the Psychic Pokemon teleport everywhere.

Prinplup was the evolved form of Piplup, and Ash assumed it was this guys starter Pokemon. Prinplup resembled a blue penguin. It had yellow three-toed feet, its body was mostly a light-blue, with a dark-blue 'mantle' and tail. There were four button-like white spots on its stomach, its wings were dark-blue with light-blue tips. It had an owl-like face with blue irises and two yellow crests running across the top of its head.

Alakazam on the other hand was a Kanto native Pokemon that was said to have a brain that could process faster than a super computer. Alakazam was easily identified by its human like structure and its large moustache. Alakazam had what appeared to be brown braces over its forearms and knees. Its head was large - mostly for containing a large brain - which was what gave it the extremely powerful mental powers. It was bipedal with three toes on each foot, each of which had a white claw. It wielded a silver spoon in each hand, each of which seemed to act as an amplifier for its special abilities.

Ash made his way over as he saw the highly annoyed expression on Dawn's face, as well as her clenched teeth and angry glare.

Dawn huffed as the reddish haired boy wearing tan slacks and a long sleeve green shirt walked off hurriedly. Ash got a sinking feeling, which only grew as the blue haired girl turned to him, looking apologetic. "I'm really sorry Ash, but do you think we could postpone that surprise until tomorrow? That... that _prick_ Kenny just ruined my mood." She briefly snarled, glaring in the direction the now named Kenny had left.

Ash, likening this encounter to one of his own with Gary back in the day - because it certainly seemed his girlfriend knew the boy - could fully understand her mood, so was very accepting about the whole thing. He took her hand, giving it a firm squeeze to assure her he was there if she needed to vent, and said, "That's alright, I know how dealing with childhood rivals can be. Do you think I could at least know what the surprise was though?"

Dawn thought about his request. Ash hadn't nagged or pressed for information, aside from just a second ago, but he could have spent the entire time since she offered asking. She should reward that sort of trust, she decided. A blush forming on her cheeks, she looked around to make sure no one was nearby and leaned in closer to her boyfriend. "Well..." She whispered in her best sultry tone, "Since you like my butt so much I was thinking I might give you a lapdance."

She immediately pulled back with a giddy giggle at how naughty it was, and Ash's thunderstruck expression, and slipped into their room as quick as she could, her face still burning.

Ash spent several moments staring at the door to their room, slack jawed.

Lapdance. He was going to get a lap dance. A dance in which his curvy girlfriend would grind her large round ass against his crotch. The only thing separating their sexes being her own thin panties and his boxers, or boxers and pants, depending on how she wanted to do things. And, Arceus be willing, she might even do it topless.

His increasingly happy thoughts swerved off of Horny Highway with a screech of tires and slammed into a wall with a giant **COCKBLOCKED** carved into it in massive letters though as it really set in that _he wasn't getting that lapdance_ because some jackass pissed off his beautiful girlfriend.

And suddenly Brock's speech from years before made sense...

-Flashback-

 _"Ash my good buddy, now that you've entered your teens - and I tell you this because I care - Team Rocket may be filled with bad people, but there's a whole race of evil people dating back to the ancient times much worse than the likes of Team Rocket...be prepared to fight them Ash..." Brock whispered to him as he looked around the Pokemon Center they were in shiftily at anyone who could be paying attention to their conversation, "Be prepared to battle the Ultimate Evil, Cockblockers!"_

-Flashback End-

Ash shook his head, pulling himself from his memory. He'd never been so calm and angry at the same time before. He was enraged, but calm enough to direct that rage perfectly. It was a strange feeling, one he wasn't going to dwell on because he had a tubby little shit to absolutely destroy.

Oh tomorrow that guy would rue the day he cockblocked Ash Ketchum!

For now he had a decision to make, should he use Pikachu, have Charizard sent over, or crush him with Mewtwo? So many ways to get revenge, so little time...

* * *

 **Omake**

 **How Ash's battle with the beginner trainer Trip should have went in the world of Crack!**

"Snivy I choose you!" Trip called as he released the Pokemon from inside onto the makeshift battlefield. Trip was a young Trainer who had just started his Pokemon journey as a Trainer of the Unova region moments ago. He had straight, longish greenish, brown hair, and wore a pair of tan jeans, black sneakers and an Orange/Black hoodie.

Snivy was one of the three starter Pokemon from the Unova region that a beginner Trainer could choose to begin their journey with. Snivy was a reptilian Grass-type Pokémon. Most of its body was green in coloration, while it had a cream-colored underside. A yellow stripe ran down the length of its back and tail, and it had yellow markings around its large eyes, extending from its eyelids. Yellow, curved structures protruded from its shoulders and bent backwards. These structures resembled leaves or small wings, as well as a fleur-de-lis when viewed from the back, and gave Snivy the appearance of wearing a collar. In spite of being snake-like in appearance, it had fully-developed limbs. Its slender arms were the same green color as the rest of its body and had three fingers, while its tiny feet matched its underside in coloration and had no digits whatsoever and it had a large, palmate leaf with three prongs on the end of its tail.

Ash grinned as he sent out his own partner, "Let's go buddy!" Ash called out with a laugh and allowed Pikachu to jump from his shoulder to land on the opposite side of the makeshift battlefield from Snivy.

He wasn't worried in the slightest. Sure they'd already met one of the legendary Pokemon from the Unova Region and he'd only been here a few hours, and sure the weakened Pokemon had tried to steal Pikachu's power for its own, but as it was weakened it had no chance against him when he had Pikachu, Charizard and Mewtwo on hand, although sadly the large dual Electric/Dragon had escaped before he could capture it, bummer. Oh well, there was always next time, and he was sure he would see it again. He had a great track record for running into Legendary Pokemon.

But for now, he had to hurry up and beat this kid who challenged him to a battle and get back to his beautiful girlfriend, who was waiting for him in Professor Junipers lab.

Ash was broken from his inner monologuing by the sound of clicking and a couple of bright camera flashes. Looking up he noted his opponent Trip taking pictures of everything around them.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked incredulously, they were just about to have a freaking battle for crying out loud and this twit was taking pictures? Did he have no respect for the time honoured tradition of Pokemon battling? What kind of rude people lived here in Unova anyway?

"I'm taking pictures, duh! Are you stupid?" Trip asked sarcastically, "This is Snivy's first win." He continued, completely assured of victory.

"Rrrright..." Ash said slowly. Well, he wasn't waiting the battle had already started, "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" The Kanto native commanded sharply.

Trip still wasn't really paying attention, probably not expecting someone to attack so thoroughly as Ash would. Pikachu leaped into the air and as usual without charge time unleashed a massive bolt of lightning raging towards Snivy with a loud cry of, "Chu!"

And just like that it was over, there was no way Snivy could dodge an attack at that speed, and thus the attack washed over Snivy, and when it dissipated, Snivy was burnt black and crispy; very, _VERY_ unconscious.

That completely took Trip by surprise, "WHAAAAAT! I LOST?" He screamed as he dropped to his knees, "HOW WILL I EVER DEFEAT ALDER NOW WITH SUCH A WEAK POKEMON!" He continued to wail, tears spilling from his eyes.

Ash snorted as Pikachu landed on his shoulder, "Did he really think he'd be given a super strong Pokemon to begin with, is he an idiot?" Ash asked Pikachu. Both he and Pikachu burst out laughing at the absurdity of it, "And he intended to take on Alder? What a riot!" Ash managed to gasp out between laughs.

After a moment, Ash calmed down and shook his head again at the inexperienced Trainer's naivety. Walking away, Ash couldn't help but mutter, "Guess you can't expect much from some dimwit from the Boonies." Pikachu snickering all the way.

And Trip? Well he never did attain his dream of defeating Alder the Unova Champion. He decided since Snivy was so weak it didn't deserve to be his Pokemon, attempted to capture wild Pokemon on his own and was promptly beaten to death by a green haired man called N and his Pokemon friends who could understand the Pokemon language and had heard about the barbaric Trainer trying to catch Pokemon with his bare hands.


	10. Chapter 10

"All right, done!" Ash declared happily as he transferred the last of his Pokemon to the Oak Ranch. Turning, he smiled down at the only Pokemon he had left with him, "Pikachu is keeping Dawn company today, and I sent all the others over to the Oak Ranch to relax for the day." The raven haired ranger continued, "Meaning, that today you get all my attention." Ash finished.

"Chim!" Chimchar cheered excitedly, bouncing up and landing on his right shoulder.

"Hehe." Ash chuckled at his latest Fire Pokemon's enthusiasm, "According to the Pokedex, Chimchar are energetic and like to play a lot. So why don't we go hit up the tree's in the forest just outside of town and we can hang around there for a little while?" He asked the Pokemon riding his shoulder.

"Chim chim char!" Chimchar responded, nodding his small orange head rapidly in his excitement.

"Right then!" Ash agreed, his face splitting with an enthusiastic grin of his own, "Let's go buddy!" He declared.

* * *

Dawn sat back, using a fallen tree as a seat and watched fondly as Ursaring and Kabutops traded powerful blow after powerful blow with one another.

Those two, despite being her most recent captures were both without a doubt the most powerful Pokemon in her team.

' _But,_ ' Dawn thought to herself as Ursaring clashed a Hammer Arm attack with Kabutops own Night Slash attack, ' _When it comes to Pokemon, just like Ash said power isn't everything..._ ' The bluenette's thoughts trailed off.

Ever since she'd started training under her boyfriend. Everything Dawn thought she knew about Pokemon was proven near enough completely false and basically the thoughts of a literally inept trainer.

She'd thought she could just magically teach her Pokemon any move she liked and then they'd magically be able to use it in contests to make some kind of brain dazzling show.

How foolish she'd been.

It hadn't been until Ash corrected her, that she learned the very basics of training Pokemon to compete in contests, never mind the advanced tactics. The power put into the attacks, the stamina of the Pokemon, the mindset of the Pokemon, the style of the Pokemon and finally the likes and dislikes of the Pokemon.

Those were just the very basics! She'd only just started moving onto the advanced training for getting her Pokemon ready.

For the most part, Ash wanted her to focus on Pokemon attack theory, and improving her battle experience.

She - and by extension her Pokemon - needed to know the perfect amount of power to use in the attacks, especially if she planned on fusing attacks together for a better performance. If she didn't get that right, any attempt she'd go for would fail before it had even begun.

And then there was her battle training. Improving her battling skill as a Trainer and learning to adjust on the fly to the tempo of the battle. Then even further she had to know how, and just when was the right time to counter and use performance attacks to overwhelm her opponent.

And it was from there, that she learned another very important truth from her boyfriend.

" _Look Dawn, don't go thinking that the best way to win is to come in blitzing with over the top performances because it isn't." Ash told her seriously, "The one true phrase that you should always remember is 'stick to the basics'." He quoted, from where exactly she didn't know but she listened with rapt attention anyway. "Always stick to the basics and you can never go wrong, and from the basics you can expand into more advanced techniques easier. Never ever start of blitzing with advanced techniques because unless you're really lucky, more often than not you're going to fail." Ash finished, topping off his small lesson by leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on her forehead._

Just thinking on it made Dawn realize just how correct her boyfriend was. She'd thought from watching his performance with his Pidgeot at the Jubilife City Contest that he knew tons of advanced techniques.

And while he did, that wasn't what he'd done. He just stuck to the basics. His entire performance was based on the speed and power of Pidgeot, and the trust both he and his Pokemon had in each other by being right in the middle of the extremely powerful attacks.

She was broken from her thoughts when she felt the ground beneath her feet begin to shake.

"W-what?" The blue haired coordinator stuttered as she jumped up. Pikachu and Piplup, who had been leaning against her, jumping up, body's tense and alert as well.

A dozen feet away, Ursaring and Kabutops stopped their mock battle and looked around warily, slowly stepping back towards Dawn.

"What's going on? Is this an Earthquake attack?" Dawn directed the questioned towards the yellow rodent at her feet, seeing as Pikachu was the most experienced Pokemon with her and would no doubt have the most knowledge on what was going on.

"Pi." Pikachu replied, shaking his small yellow head in the negative. Tugging on one of her pink boots, Pikachu pointed in front of her over towards the distance.

And it was only then that Dawn noticed all the Pokemon with her were also watching in that direction warily.

Dawn felt her eyes widen in shock when she saw the cause of the pseudo-earthquake. Over past the clearing, out onto the massive grassy green field was what looked to be a ginormous Kingler made up of glinting metal.

And it was chasing after a much smaller figure, it's claws swiping out and barely missing on each pass.

Dawn quickly whipped out her Pokedex. The Pokemon was familiar but she couldn't quite place it.

She hit the scan button and awaited the data from her Pokedex. She didn't have to wait long as a picture showed up on the Pokedex and the robotic voice began speaking, ' _Ponyta, The Fire Horse Pokémon. Its mane is made of intense flames._ _This Ponyta is Female and has the Ability flash Fire. Currently, this Ponyta has the ability to perform the attacks Flamethrower, Flame Wheel, Hypnosis, Agility and Double Kick.'_

Ponyta was a rather small four-legged horse like Pokemon, however, its mane and tail were usually made up of yellow and reddish-orange flames unlike the Ponyta with a mane made up of blue fire that Dawn was looking at. Its fur was cream all over. It had four long legs, each ending in a single, gray hoof.

Dawn blinked, "But the Ponya in the picture has a mane and tail made up of red and orange flames?" She asked no one in particular, "That one over there has ones made up of blue flames, how's that?"

As she thought, her mind drifted back to when she met Ash's Noctowl. She had been so surprised when she'd saw that it's colouring was completely different from others of its species, so Ash had explained to her that sometimes very rare Pokemon were born that that alternate colouring to others of their species.

"Should we intervene here?" Dawn asked the Pokemon around her. She wasn't sure what to make of this situation, it was the first time she'd ever saw a giant robot Pokemon trying to catch another Pokemon.

Her mind was made-up though a split-second later when the fleeing Ponyta tried to jump, only for one of the massive claws of the robotic Kingler to bat it harshly out of the air and send it crashing into the ground painfully, where it lay unmoving.

Dawn reacted on instinct as the giant robotic Kingler closed in on the defenceless Ponyta, "Pikachu Thunderbolt! Piplup BubbleBeam! Kabutops Ancient-Power! Ursaring Hyper Beam!"

A brief moment of charge time followed before the attacks were launched and Dawn watched as a massive lance of glinting yellow lightning, hundreds of large glowing blue bubbles, a massive silvery boulder and a powerful wide-spread orange beam of destruction raced across the open fields.

The four attacks hit as one, and kicked up a massive explosion so high that the clouds themselves parted.

Faintly Dawn heard two enraged shouting voices high above as she herself started sprinting towards the downed Ponyta. She could barely make out the words before they went silent.

"I CAN'T BELEIVE I'M GETTING BLASTED OFF LIKE THAT BUFFOON JAMES!"

"SHUT UP BIFF, DON'T REMIND ME!"

"SCREW YOU CASSIDY, I'VE TOLD YOU LIKE A MILLION FUCKING TIMES THAT MY NAME IS BUTC-"

That was as far as the voices got before they ended up too far out of range for Dawn to hear.

She continued on unimpeded though, and quickly made her way towards the downed Ponyta, sliding down onto her knee's as she reached the blue maned Pokemon and began to check it over for injuries.

"C'mon c'mon, please be okay." Dawn chanted softly to herself as she pulled the Ponyta's head onto her knee's and made a make-shift pillow for the injured Pokemon, ignoring the very very hot sensation on her knee's from the action.

* * *

Ash let out a loud whoop of delight as he used a large branch to swing himself up and soaring into the air.

The raven haired ranger had always been a good climber, he had been ever since he was young. But ever since he started training with his Aura, his climbing abilities had increased ten-fold easily.

Lucario had taught him to allow the Aura to guide him. After a few months of training with his Aura, Ash had found that he could literally scale the side of a building easily, even when there was very little to grip onto on the way up.

 _'The Aura is with me.'_

That was the motto of an Aura Guardian. And now that he was at least adept in using Aura, Ash understood it and he also understood just why Lucario had told him to refrain from learning a fighting style.

The Aura was his guide. Trusting in the Aura would allow him to flow to it's ministrations and the Aura would guide him into the best course of action to take in a fight. Whether it was a Pokemon battle, or a fight he was in on his own.

Ash had learned from Lucario that in ancient times Pokemon and Aura Guardians stood side-by-side to combat the rising darkness of an ancient evil. The name of the enemy had been lost to the ages, but it was rather well known that it was the Aura Guardians that turned the tide of the battle, and allowed Pokemon and humans to come out triumphant over their dark foes.

Lucario had taught him an ancient phrase, that the Aura using Pokemon had called a pseudo-prophecy.

" _He who has mastered Aura, yet still bows to the Aura as his master and Guide will be named as the ultimate warrior. So has it come to pass, so it shall be again for he is Aura and Aura is he, they are one in the same the Ultimate Warrior Of Legend who banishes the 'Darkness'._ "

Suffice to say, Ash didn't understand a great deal of the so called 'prophecy', but what he did know was that he could trust in his Aura, for it was with him and always would be and in the future he and it may become one.

Very cryptic, and he was still working on translating it by breaking the prophecy up, and hoping to find where the certain parts would match up.

Sadly, The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger hadn't had much luck. But he wasn't about to give it up any time soon.

He was rather stubborn that way.

Flipping in mid-air, Ash allowed himself to descend rapidly. Trusting in the Aura as it blazed in his senses, Ash reached out and grabbed.

The Trainer smirked when he found purchase on another branch and swung up and over, landing on top of it in a crouch.

Looking a ways behind him, Ash stuck out his tongue mockingly, "You better hurry up Chimchar, at this rate you'll never catch me." He called out to his approaching Fire chimp Pokemon with a warm laugh before rocketing from his position atop the branch and taking off even faster into the trees ahead.

He laughed in amusement and joy all the way.

* * *

Dawn let out a sigh of relief when Ponyta came back to full awareness.

Jumping from her make shift bed on Dawn's knees, Ponyta looked around at the blue haired trainer and the surrounding Pokemon warily. Muscles tensed as if to attack or flee at any moment.

Luckily, Dawn noticed it and began putting her lessons from Ash to use.

"Shh shh, there we're not gonna hurt you girl." Dawn cooed gently. Reaching forward the bluenette gently rubbed the side of Ponyta's snout. "There ya go girl, we chased those idiots who were attacking you away." She continued softly.

Well it wasn't exactly a lie. They had chased them off into the sky with some super-charged attacks.

To prove what she was saying, Dawn pointed over Ponyta's head to the side where the burnt and broken scraps of what was left of the giant robotic Kingler were laying in a heap.

Looking over at the heap of – now – junk, Ponyta whined in relief before turning and snorting happily at Dawn.

Dawn beamed back at the Pokemon. She hesitated for a moment when she remembered Ash telling her a story of him burning his hand on a Ponyta's mane when he petted it because it didn't trust him.

But the girlfriend of Ash Ketchum was no coward – well, for the most part – so she put on a brave face, hiding her worry behind a cheery smile and reached up, and ran her small hand through the fiery blue mane of Ponyta.

To her delight, she felt no burning sensation. It was warm, but more of a comforting warmth instead of a 'your hand is getting melted off' warm.

She was interrupted when Ponyta let out a soft whinny and nudged against her hip.

Looking at the Pokemon curiously, Dawn saw that the female Ponyta was pointing between her and it's back over and over.

It took a second or two for the reason to click in Dawn's mind.

"Are you saying, you want me to ride you?" Dawn asked, her voice hopeful. She couldn't help her rising hopes that it was true, and the excitement that reverberated through her body at the thought.

Ponyta nodded her head and gave another whinny, this one louder, to confirm her theory.

"Oh gosh! This'll be so fun!" Dawn said to herself in a jittery excitement as she gripped onto Ponyta's neck and swung up on-top of the small Fire Horse Pokemon.

' _Thank Arceus mom had those Arcanine with her a few years ago, or I would have probably fell on my ass attempting that._ ' Dawn thought to herself with a sweat-drop. She could feel the phantom pain bruises she'd earned from falling off of those Arcanine the many times before she got the riding of the large canine Pokemon down-pat.

Thankfully, Ponyta was a lot smaller than the average Arcanine so it was a lot easier to swing atop the Fire horse Pokemon.

From her position atop Ponyta, Dawn looked over the assembled Pokemon with her, "You guys relax and do whatever you feel like doing as long as you don't stray to far from this area." The coordinator told the 6 Pokemon, "I'm going to ride with Ponyta for a little bit, ciao!" The bluenette bid goodbye.

Ponyta reared up on her back legs, high into the air before coming down and charging straight into a fast gallop across the large grassy field.

"Wow..." Dawn breathed out, feeling her long blue hair blow in the wind whipping past her, "I forgot how amazing it is to ride a Pokemon." She said to herself giddily.

"Nyaaaaah!" Cheered from beneath her before picking up the pace and changing from a fast gallop to a full on charging sprint.

"Whooooo!" Dawn cheered right alongside Ponyta as they blurred across the grassy field at a blinding pace.

* * *

It was as Ash swung up into the top of a rather tall tree that he felt it. His Aura senses blazed and raged across his mind warning him against a malicious and completely wild intent based being.

Not a moment later did a very familiar voice scream out over the forest he was in.

"CHIIIIIIIIIMCHAAAR!" Chimchar's voice was extremely loud, but it was filled with fear. No, not fear. Complete, heart wrenching terror.

"Chimchar!" Ash shouted in worry.

Turning, Ash shot from the top of the tree he was in, bouncing from tree to tree as he rocketed towards where he could feel Chimchar and the being with malicious intent.

He felt it now that he was closer. It wasn't just a being, three different beings with very malicious intent.

Closing in on the area, Ash allowed Aura to guide him and propelled himself forward into a flip landing crouched on a tree branch overlooking a ravaged looking clearing that was filled with slash marks all over.

Looking down, Ash felt his confusion grow as he saw three large Zangoose menacingly approaching his Chimchar who was curled up in a ball against a tree shaking in terror.

Ash had no idea why his Pokemon was so terrified, but he wasn't about to let it stand!

Reaching towards his belt, Ash cursed when he felt no Pokeballs besides Chimchar's and realized he'd sent them all away to relax at the Oak Ranch for the day so he could spend time with Chimchar!

"All right then." Ash phsyched himself up, "I guess I'll do this the old fashioned way." The amber eyed Ranger finished, his voice becoming low and menacing.

Jumping high, Ash descended and landed deftly between his cowering Chimchar and the three menacing Zangoose.

Zangoose were fairly large Pokémon that had the characteristics of both the mongoose and feline species. Their fur was mostly white in color, but they possessed deep red markings on the face, chest, and forepaws, which had sharp turns and edges. The markings made it appear that Zangoose had been involved in a vicious fight and was covered in blood and scars. They had two apparently retractable, long, sharp, black claws on their forepaws that looked to be their main weapons in battle. Zangoose had large pink eyes, small tufts of white fur on their shoulders, somewhat rabbit-like ears, and large, furry white tails. They also had a pattern of four pink circles on the underside of their hind feet in a "paw-pad"-like arrangement and to top it off, from their lips jutted two sharp canine teeth each.

Ash bared his teeth at the three normal type Pokemon, "I don't know what the hell you three were trying to do to my little buddy Chimchar." He growled out at them as menacingly as he could, taking a step forward to prove his height and show that he towered over all three of them in an attempt to intimidate them, "But what I do know is, you three better back the fuck off! Cuz if you don't I'll skin all three of you and make a rug outta' you!" The amber eyed trainer finished, setting his hands to his sides and lowering himself slightly into a stance in case they attacked.

His attempt at intimidation fell on deaf ears.

The leader of the Zangoose, the one in the middle snarled at him and launched forward, claws going with light blue energy.

' _Crush Claw!_ ' Ash recognized from his experience, the attack was known to be he signature attack of the Zangoose species.

Ducking, Ash just missed having half his face ripped to shreds by the Zangoose's razor sharp claws. Allowing the Aura to guide him, Ash spun in his low position, coating his left hand and right elbow in a coating of aura. Lashing out, Ash elbowed the lead Zangoose in the neck and sent it to the ground sputtering and trying to regain breath from it's now hurt oesophagus.

Continuing with his spin he lashed out with his Aura coated hand and batted away a rather large orb of glittering, pulsing purple energy.

' _Shadow Ball!_ ' Ash mentally catalogued. When he came out of his spin, Ash found himself facing his shivering in terror Chimchar and his Aura senses blaring across his minds-eye warning him about a powerful attack from behind.

Lightning quick, his body augmented by his aura. Ash reached down and grabbed Chimchar, before jumping at the tree in front of him and using it as a springboard to flip high into the air and land on top of a branch of a tree directly above the third Zangoose that just let loose a powerful orange beam of destruction. The launched Hyper Beam literally obliterated the tree into nothing but small pieces of charred bark when it impacted the tree and detonated.

Setting Chimchar down gently, Ash sprung back into action.

Jumping from the tree, Ash came down prepared to deliver an axe-kick to the top of the recovering Zangoose's head.

But he was forced to come down into a hand-stand and spin out of harms way as the Zangoose who launched the Shadow Ball at him attempted to swing an over-headed fist glowing a bright white down on him.

The fist cratered ground beneath the blow. Ash sighed in relief when he used his hands to flip back to his feet seamlessly, "Damn, that was close; that Brick Break would have given me one hell of a concussion." He muttered to himself, his voice tinged with a small amount of nerves.

He may have had Aura, but that still didn't completely erase the old age thought that he used to have of Pokemon being much more powerful than the average human.

Ash had at most a split second to orient himself, before the lead Zangoose was upon him again. Blurring towards him, Zangoose lashed out with a barrage of clawed fists and kicks.

' _Close Combat._ ' Ash realized to late as he continued to attempt to weave between each blow.

His futile attempts at dodging were for naught though, and all Ash could do was coat the entirety of his body in a sheet of Aura and endure the blows Zangoose rained down upon him.

Finally, as Zangoose began to slow down with each wince of pain from Ash. The raven haired trainer saw an opponent. Allowing his mind to go blank, and trusting in the Aura to guide him, Ash allowed his instincts to take over.

Weaving to the right and dodging Zangoose's final clawed punch, Ash situated himself and let loose a right hook, his arm and fist spinning to the side as it went.

There was a loud 'CRACK' sounding noise as Ash's Aura augmented fist connected with Zangoose's cheek and sent the leader of the three Pokemon back stumbling back a few feet, yelping in pain.

Smirking as the Zangoose collapsed in pain, Ash turned towards the other two Zangoose expecting them to show at least a sliver of fear from him taking down their leader with one punch, and what he thought was a broken jaw.

But no, the last two Zangoose were grinning maliciously as they thrust their arms forward, concentrated glowing beams of energy erupting from their red palms.

But it wasn't Ash who they were facing, and it wasn't Ash they fired the Hyper Beams at.

Ash, his face covered in a few bleeding gashes he'd received from the beating the lead Zangoose had dealt out, felt his blood run cold.

Because, it was Chimchar who was still shivering in terror at the sight of the Zangoose who they were aiming at.

"NO!" Ash screamed his voice hoarse in a terror of his own. He should have just grabbed Chimchar and ran! Why was he so stupid as to not think of that?!

Ash didn't know what happened next. All he knew was that he needed to save Chimchar, his every fibre of being cried out for him to save his Pokemon. Protect those that trusted him as their Trainer.

And he found himself standing in front of Chimchar on the branch, no idea how he got there and with nary a second to spare. Still he didn't care because he acted on the protective instincts that he had ingrained inside him for everything that he cared about. His mother, friends, girlfriend and Pokemon were his entire world.

Not even thinking about himself, Ash threw himself on top of a terrorized Chimchar and shielded his newest fire Pokemon from the powerful orange Hyper Beams with his body.

The attacks literally obliterated the tree beneath him and sent him soaring into the air, his back baring the brunt of the searing explosions from the powerful beam attacks.

Ash ignored the mind-numbing pain as he soared through the air, only reacting to tuck himself into a rather odd-shaped ball as he crashed into the ground harshly and protected Chimchar from both the attacks and the high fall.

Ash could barely feel his limbs.

The amber eyed ranger looked up as Chimchar tentatively crawled out from underneath him, before looking upon his battered and bruised body in shock.

"Chim..?" The small Fire Type trailed off, at a loss for words.

Ash managed a weak smile, ignoring the two Zangoose who were approaching them from a few metres away menacingly.

"Go.." Ash managed to cough out, blood dripping from his lip. "Run away Chimchar...I don't know why...but they obviously terrify you...so run away and protect yourself...leave me here, I'll...be...fine..." The raven haired trainer trailed off himself in nary a whisper, losing the strength to even keep his head up.

"Zan!"

"Goose!"

Both Zangoose sprang high into the air, descending towards Ash's limp body with glowing claws and victorious snarls.

Ash, who was slowly fading in and out of consciousness, felt an explosion in Aura just in front of him, and heard a loud screeching voice.

"CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM-FERNO!"

Ash's world exploded in a bright white light.

Looking up weakly, recognizing from the familiarity in the voice that the voice screeching was Chimchar's, until it changed mid-way through Chimchar's usual cry of his name.

Looking up through watery pain filled eyes, Ash was just in time to see the bright white die down, and where once stood Chimchar, now stood a whole new Pokemon.

The evolved form of Chimchar, Monferno!

Monferno was a chimpanzee-like Pokémon with baboon-like features. Much of Monferno's hair was a bright orange colour, appearing shaggier on the top of its feet. Monferno now had an evident tail, unlike its previous form as a Chimchar. Its tail had a spindly flame at the tip, and the base of the tail had a patch of red coloration. Monferno's snout, ears, belly, three-toed feet, five fingers and the circular marking on its palms were all a shade of beige. It had a spiky ruff of white hair around its neck and gold arm bands. Monferno had blue markings above its eyes and red markings between them on its face. It had small fangs, orange eyelids and a small crest of orange hair.

"Heh.." Ash smirked weakly, "Way to go buddy, now... show these fools... not to...mess with us!" He ground out, weakly pushing himself into a sitting position.

He didn't know how, but the massive force of Aura Monferno gave off as he evolved had ebbed into his pores and was somehow healing his wounds at a steady rate.

Both Zangoose who had been blown out of the air from the force of Monferon's evolution growled angrily as they sprung back to their feet and charged back towards Ash, uncaring of Chimchar evolving.

They didn't get far.

Monferno literally appeared right in the middle of both charging Normal Types, so fast he actually had Ash blinking in awe, ' _Holy shit! That was near enough as fast as Sceptile at max speed!'_ He couldn't help how damn proud he was, especially with how young Monferno was.

Fists glowing a blinding bluish-white, Monferno lashed out and slammed a haymaker into each Zangoose's face sending them flying through the air and crashing together in a heap on the ground, groaning in pain.

The force of the punches, actually leaving a gale of wind behind it that Ash had to use all of his remaining strength not to get blown off his feet by.

"...The hell..?" Ash muttered to himself, gaping slightly as he brushed the hair out of his face, "How is he so strong so soon after evolving? How the hell did he use a double Mach Punch when he's only just learned the move?"

He hadn't seen such a massive jump in power in one evolution since his Treecko evolved into a Grovyle.

Jumping, Monferno spun into a truly massive wheel of fire and blurred forward, leaving trails of fire in the forest grass. Spinning rapidly, Monferno ran straight over the two crumpled together Zangoose getting them to roar in pain from being burned all over. Their white fur, singed black by the time Monferno jumped up and of off them.

"Fern fern, Monferno!" The newly evolved Fire Pokemon screeched out beating on his chest with his fists.

With his Aura, as low as it may be at the moment. Ash got the general gist of the message.

' **Beat it, or else!** '

The Zangoose were only to happy to oblige, jumping up despite their wounds they both bolted from the clearing, dragging behind their still moaning in pain leader.

"Ferno!" Monferno cried after them with another round of beating on his newly evolved chest.

Again, the message was rather clear to Ash.

' **Yeah, that's what I thought you cowards!** '

Ash chuckled to himself, wincing slightly at the pain that reverberated around his bruised chest. Monferno hearing his chuckle, turned to him and quickly bounded over to Ash looking him over worriedly.

Chuckling a bit louder this time, Ash waved off his Pokemon's concern. Sure he was still sore all over, and was covered in injuries but he trusted in his Aura, and from it he got the sense that he would be okay so he didn't worry about it, "Don't worry buddy." Ash told his Pokemon, reaching up he ruffled the pointed hair atop his newly evolved Pokemon's head in a show of affection. Monferno happily replied, leaning his orange head further into Ash's rubbing head, "I'll be fine, just need a little bit of rest." The exhausted teen finished.

"Monferno!" The Fire Pokemon squealed out happily.

Ash continued to chuckle for a few more moments, before it died off when he realized something. He couldn't stand up for the life of him.

"Eeehhhh...Monferno, would you mind helping me walk towards the Pokemon Center? I'm afraid I can't quite get up on my own power at the moment..." Ash trailed off lamely.

Embarrassment didn't quite describe the situation for Ash when all the bypassers they walked past towards the Pokemon Center in Floaroma Town decided to gawk at the teenage Pokemon Ranger leaning on a small monkey-like Pokemon for support as he walked.

* * *

The sun was setting over the flowery field when Dawn finally descended from Ponyta's for the final time.

All of her own Pokemon. Piplup, Buneary, Ursaring, Ambipom and Kabutops had retreated to their Pokeballs to rest before dinner, and Pikachu had likewise retreated into her yellow backpack to take a nap of his own.

Such a lazy mouse!

"Well, I guess this is it." Dawn said as she rubbed Ponyta's snout gently. Her deep blue eyes shining with unshed moisture.

Gathering all the courage she possessed Dawn gave the the best smile she could, which wasn't much, and looked quite hollow and fake, despite her best effort. A good actress she was not. "Maybe we can met again sometime, neh?" The blue haired coordinate asked softly.

It wasn't really a question, more of some hopeful optimism.

"Well..." Dawn trailed of sadly, "Goodbye Ponyta." She concluded with tears pricking at her eyes.

She'd only known the rare coloured Ponyta for a few hours, but she couldn't help bonding with the wild mare Pokemon and coming to enjoy being in the Pokemon's presence greatly.

' _Hold it together girl!_ ' Dawn scolded herself as she felt tears threatening to spill. Turning on her heel, Dawn began to walk away from Ponyta keeping the best stiff upper lip she could.

She only got a few steps before she was stopped though.

"Nyaaah!" Ponyta cried out, rushing out in front of Dawn and blocking her from going any further.

"W-what? Ponyta?" Dawn asked, confusion evident on her pretty face. "Why are you blocking me...?" She trailed off, her voice cracking near the end of her sentence from the sorrow racking her body.

In response, Ponyta walked as close to Dawn as she could and rubbed up against her gently. A moment of rubbing up against Dawn in affection later, Ponyta sprinted over a few metres away quickly where Dawn left her Pokeballs left out.

Reaching down with her snout, Ponyta gave one last loud "Nyaaah!" Before she touched one of the empty Pokeballs with her snout and was sucked inside quickly within a beam of red energy.

Dawn literally gaped in shock.

"What... The... Hell... Just... Happened?" The bluenette muttered to herself in shock. This had never happened to her before, she was accustomed to battling Pokemon and catching them after a hard-won battle. Not spending time with the Pokemon, and it willingly jumping into one of her empty Pokeballs!

A moment of silence later, when the Pokeball finished glowing red, rolling from side to side and gave a loud 'PING' to signify the capture of the rare coloured Ponyta. Dawn couldn't help herself.

She burst out a deep bellied laughter, crying tears of mirth.

"I can't believe this!" She managed to gasp out between laughs, "Just wait until Ash hears about this!" She continued through her laughter.

So saying that, she rushed over and grabbed all of her Pokeballs, including the newly filled one. Slinging her backpack containing Pikachu over her shoulder she took off towards the Pokemon Center.

She had to turn in early tonight anyway. She had a Pokemon Contest that she intended to win coming up tomorrow!

* * *

 _ **Omake**_

 _ **Cock Blockers: Part 2!**_

"But, but why?" Ash asked, his voice low and depressed. A voice reminiscent of a kicked puppy.

Dawn crossed her arms under her bust and glared angrily at him, "You want to know why I'm receding your boyfriendly privileges for the night?" His blue haired girlfriend asked, narrowing her eyes into a more fearsome glare.

Ash nodded his head, "Well yeah. I don't remember doing anything to make you angry at me." He continued confidently, he was 100 percent sure of himself.

"You 'don't remember doing anything to make me angry!'" Dawn repeated, her voice rising into an anger filled shout, "Instead of returning Chimchar to his Pokeball and running away like any sane person, you decided in all of your testosterone filled wisdom to jump down and fight THREE fully evolved Pokemon, BARE HANDED!"

"Hmph!" Dawn grunted at him, turning on her pink boots with a squeak she stormed out of the room.

"And just for acting like such a boy! I'm not bringing any extra servings with your dinner!" Her voice reverberated into the room from the hall.

Ash was quiet for all of two seconds.

"Those god damn Zangoose! Not only did they beat the crap outta me! And not only did they make me miss out on extras at dinner!" Ash raged angrily, his amber eyes glinting and screaming for bloody murder, "But they god damn FUCKING COCK BLOCKED ME!" He finished, shouting at the top of his rage filled voice.

"Fuck this!" Ash began once more, pulling himself up out of his bed and began making his way towards the nearest video phone, "Those fuckin' Zangoose are gonna pay! I'm gonna get Charizard over here and I'm gonna have him fucking _melt_ those little bastards to death with a few well placed BLAST BURNS!"

Limping out of his room, Ash was avoided like the plague because of the people staying at the Pokemon Center wanting to stay out of the way of the crazy ass crippled looking kid with murder blazing in his eyes and voice.

Yes, those three Zangoose would rue the day they fucked with Ash Ketchum!


	11. Chapter 11

Ash winced slightly, turning in his seat amongst the large uproar as the lights high above the Contest Stadium dimmed.

The injuries he received from the beating those three aggressive Zangoose gave him had faded for the most part thanks to his Aura. But still, the large purple bruise he had covering the side of his chest made him wince everytime he moved, even slightly, and the gashes across his face and arms covered by some band-aids still stung mightily.

But it was a welcomed improvement from the previous night when he couldn't even get up off the bed.

Thankfully the more powerful the Pokemon, the more Aura said Pokemon had and by extension seeped out.

He'd allowed Monferno to stay outside of his Pokeball, and Dawn had likewise done the same with Ursaring and Kabutops. So sleeping in the same room with those three plus Pikachu had allowed him to accumulate a nice boosted amount of ambient Aura that helped his wounds recover faster.

Still hurt like a bitch though.

' _If only Mewtwo wasn't out exploring the entirety of Sinnoh, looking for something interesting._ ' Ash lamented to himself.

Mewtwo's powers went beyond understanding sometimes. The cloned brother of Mew was still an enigma sometimes to Ash despite how long he'd known him.

Somehow, Mewtwo could use a rudimentary form of Aura, enough to heal injuries of others with and to form an actual honest to god Aura Sphere attack.

… Ash was still disappointed that Mewtwo couldn't impart on him enough information for him to quite make his own Aura Sphere.

' _Still._ ' Ash thought to himself, absent mindedly rubbing Pikachu, who was sitting on his lap behind the ears, ' _I'm close to being able to do it, Riolu has been a big help so far and it won't be to long now until I have it down.'_ The amber eyed ranger continued in his head.

It was king of embarrassing really. The Aura Guardians of Legend could use Aura to imitate any Pokemon attack, from the beginners use of Aura Sphere to the adept users Quick Attack making them much faster and much more deadly. And then there was the Master level users of Aura, those said to be able to fire off the likes of Hyper Beam or Blast Burn with nary a thought.

Considering he was an adept Aura user, yet couldn't even form an Aura Sphere yet... Suffice to say, there was a reason he didn't discuss the finer points of Aura with his girlfriend.

He was sure Dawn wouldn't think any less of him, but that age old saying seemed to be true after all;

' _In the end, a man will always have his pride._ '

He admitted to himself that he'd toned down on his prideful boasting and arrogance since way back when he first started his journey. But still, he wasn't perfect, he had a good deal of flaws and one them was his pride.

He was proud of his accomplishments. He was proud of his Pokemon, and he was proud of his abilities as an Elite level trainer of Pokemon.

Hell, his title on his Trainer Info Page was 'Elite Trainer'. That was literally enough for him to retire from his journey and be accepted to teach at one of the Pokemon Academies that only accept those of rich stature and potential themselves to be 'Elite Level Trainers'. Like Poke-tech Academy for one.

And if his battle with Giselle way back on his first journey through Kanto when he visited Poke-tech Academy was anything to go by... he was, to put it mildly, over qualified to teach there. Giselle was supposedly the best trainer there, and he'd defeated her strongest Pokemon – a Cubone – with Pikachu using no real attacks besides Quick Attack to win.

And nowadays he wouldn't even consider his past self mud on his current self's sneakers. He'd only been travelling for about three weeks when he had defeated Giselle. Nowadays? Pikachu would obliterate all of his old Pokemon of that time in one under-powered blow.

...Maybe he should pool all of his winnings over the years and open his own Pokemon Academy? If May and Dawn were anything to go by, he was a damned good teacher.

Ash shook his head, a bemused smile appearing across his tanned cheeks, ' _I'm getting way off track here._ ' He thought to himself.

The point was. Mewtwo could have healed all of his injuries within a few minutes at most with his enigmatic abilities.

But the Legendary Psychic Pokemon was busy, so he'd just have to man up, put on a tough face and take the pain for the moment.

He was broken from his... somewhat depressing thoughts by the crowd quieting down, and a bright spotlight shined down on Marian the Sinnoh Region Contest Announcer.

Looking around the curly brown haired woman, decked out in her yellow/orange dress Ash noted that the battlefield for this Contest was surrounded by a large square perimeter of bushes filled to the brims with a multitude of soft colored flowers.

' _To be expected of Floaroma Town._ ' Ash mused. The town, very literally, worshipped flowers for some reason or another. The reason? Ash couldn't remember for the life of him.

In his defense though, it was Dawn who had asked about the history of the town when they signed up for a night class on preparing Poffins... some Sinnoh Region Pokemon snack that had begun to replace Pokéblock.

And while he could multi-task. He was spent alternating between cooking the Poffins for his Pokemon, and staring at Dawn's pink-skirt clad behind and legs each time she bent over to stir the pot or add more ingredients.

Time well spent in his opinion. Even if his Poffins came out half-assed and he heard basically nothing of Floaroma Towns history. He'd already heard tons of Town histories over the course of his many regional journeys, so what if he couldn't remember one? And so what if he gave his Pokemon burnt Poffins... He could always get Dawn to give him a few pointers. Supposedly she had learnt to make Poffins at a young age from her mother Johanna who was pretty well versed in making them herself, what with her being an experienced Pokemon Coordinator and two time winner of the Sinnoh Grand Festival if rumours were to believed.

Staring at his awesomely beautiful girlfriend was always a good pass time for him...He was sure his Pokemon would forgive him eventually for the nasty Poffins he gave him.

They had to at least, he made each of their meals every single day... So yes, Ash would call that a win in his opinion.

"Greetings and a warm welcome to all you Coordinator and Contest lovers of all ages." She spoke clearly, the sound of her voice travelling loudly and clearly over the whole Contest Hall thanks to the speakers lining the walls and the microphone in her hand, "You've all come together for one very special reason. That's to find out who will take home the coveted and fabulous Floaroma Contest ribbon! Now I know you've all been waiting patiently so now it's time for you all to be rewarded." She declared.

With that declaration sparks flew high into the air from both ends of the Contest stage as the large dome-like roof atop the Contest Hall opened up and slid away, showing the clear and sunny blue sky to everyone present.

"We're coming at you live and on-stage from the stadium located in Floaroma Town! The Town of flowers!" She continued, "Time for me to introduce our judges, and heeeere they are!" She shouted loudly into the microphone.

"Head of the judges community and Pokemon Contest direction, Mr. Contesta!" She introduced first.

"Thank you, thank you, it's great to be here." An older man with greyish black hair and a red blazer replied to the loud cheering he received.

"And now the head of the Pokemon fan-club! Mr. Sukizo!" She introduced next.

An incredibly short, almost bald middle-aged man wearing a blue business suit stepped up beside Mr. Contesta, "Remarkable is the word, thanks." He stated.

"And finally, Floaroma Town's very own Nurse Joy!" The brown haired woman introduced last.

The beautiful pink haired nurse stepped up next, "Wow! When it comes to seeing all the amazing and splendid Pokemon, I can't wait!" She called out to the crowd as she waved happily to her cheering section.

"Oh, I forgot me!" The brown haired announcer said bashfully, "I'm Marian, and I'm thrilled to be the master of ceremonies, thanks so much!" She declared happily, in her loud perky voice.

Marian then ran to the middle of the stage as she got ready to start off the appeal round, "And now it's time for the first round, where one by one our contestants take their spot on this stage, the purpose of this round is to see how her contestant make their Pokemon shine, showing off power and beauty."

"And so! Without further adieu!" Marian spoke aloud, "Let's welcome our first contestant! Kenny from Twinleaf Town!" She introduced.

The red curtains off to the side drew open, and the red-haired so called friend of Dawn's ran out onto the stage waving to the many fans in the crowd.

Ash quirked an eyebrow when he took note of Kenny's outfit. He was wearing a light green matador outfit, the suits designed for bull Pokemon fights, like Tauros or Bouffelant.

' _Really?_ ' Ash snorted to himself in amusement, continuing to idly rub Pikachu behind the ear. His partner Pokemon giving a soft mewled 'Chuu' of pleasure as the small Electric Type relaxed and pushed his head further up into Ash's palm, ' _Bull Pokemon fighters are usually strong and experienced men, is he trying to compensate for something...?_ ' The raven haired boyfriend of Dawn questioned himself within the confines of his mind.

"Go, Alakazam!" Kenny shouted as he released the Seal encased Pokeball from his hand.

From the Pokeball, an inferno of fire erupted into the air shooting high, his Alakazam spear heading the flames. Moments later, the fire extinguished and Alakazam descended into a graceful flip and landed on it's two legs standing up twirling it's two twisted spoons impressively in its hands.

"Kazam!" Alakazam's voice boomed throughout the arena.

"Light Screen!" Kenny ordered sharply.

"Kazam!" Alakazam boomed once more, eyes glowing a bright gold. From both sides, at the back of, front of and above Alakazam four large glowing golden sheets of glass manifested into existence, before shooting to Alakazam and joining together around the Psychic Pokemon encasing it in a golden cube of energy.

"Now Shadow Ball!" Kenny followed up, grinning to himself.

From inside the golden cube of energy, a purple flickering ball of energy manifested between Alakazam's two spoons, before soon expanding in size drastically until it's size completely dwarfed Alakazam and hid it from view.

The golden cube of energy and the purple ball of energy contrasting and humming together, before with a pulse from the Shadow Ball, it exploded and sent shards of glowing energy scattering everywhere, before the energy in them depleted and they ceased to exist.

Just before the Shadow Ball had erupted though, Kenny made a sharp order, "Teleport!"

From above the explosion, Alakazam phased into view sitting cross-legged and floating in mid-air.

"Now," Kenny began once more, his voice tight lipped with anticipation and glee, "Use Hidden Power!"

"Alakazam!" His Pokemon boomed one final time and glowed with a golden outline of energy. All around the super computer minded Pokemon, hundreds of small glowing blue spheres of energy phased into existence and began to rapidly encircle Alakazam like a planetary ring.

Both the ring of spheres and Alakazam floated high into the air, before Alakazam pulsed with energy and the spheres that made up the Hidden Power attack exploded in mid-air sprinkling thousands of tiny glitters of turquoise energy floating down towards the arena floor.

...The crowd was quiet for a moment, before they erupted into a massive ear-splitting roar of applause.

Pikachu jerked up from on Ash's lap, looking around warily with cheeks sparking electricity from the massive noise, no doubt expecting an attack of some kind.

Ash chuckled and rubbed Pikachu's ear gently once more, "Calm down buddy, it's just the crowd applauding that twit Kenny." The amber eyed ranger told his Pokemon soothingly.

"Pi?" The small rodent Pokemon questioned him with a confused look on his small and cute little red pouched cheeks face.

"Eh," Ash answered, "It was okay I guess, nothing to impressive or anything we've not seen before it was a pretty generic Psychic Pokemon performance, all energy attack based and flare." He continued, his voice normal and level as if nothing impressive had occurred.

And to him it hadn't. He'd seen hundreds of contest performances and from what Ash saw there was nothing all that original in Kenny and Alakazam's performance. Just another Coordinator who thought big flashy attack, make-shift fireworks and making his Pokemon look good were all it took to become a world-class Coordinator.

Pfft... as if!

Ash would admit to himself that Kenny's performance was better than the average Coordinators, but that was all. There was nothing memorable, original or awe-inspiring at all throughout the entire performance.

Ash wasn't one to toot his own horn...well yes, actually, he was, but that wasn't the point! What he was getting at was that the raven haired Pokemon Ranger's performance with his Pidgeot back in Jubilife City was still being shown on TV frequently and talked about it reverent and awed whispers.

Enough to make anyone's head bloat... But Ash's head was bloated enough from his first journey through Kanto to ignore the majority of it.

* * *

"Wow." Dawn commented from the waiting area surrounded by every other Coordinator competing. She had adorned her pink dress for the Contest, the only differences from her appearance back in Jubilife being that her hair was still in a pony-tail except her bangs were pleated into make-shift soft flowing curled spirals. And on her necklace was an orange-gold flower corsage given to her by her boyfriend.

Luckily for Ash, the corsage went well with her outfit and contrasted nicely with her golden earrings.

"Kenny is actually really good." The blue haired Coordinator said to herself. "But," She smiled, "It wasn't anywhere near the level of Ash's performance with Pidgeot back in Jubilife though, when he set the measuring bar for me."

Looking down at the Seal encased Pokeball in her hand, Dawn's smile morphed into a large grin, "But just wait until it's my turn Kenny, Ash has been a great teacher and with his lessons I'm gonna completely blow you and the rest of the people watching all over Sinnoh away!" The blue haired trainer stated confidently, and completely ignoring the odd looks she got from the other Coordinators near her for talking to herself.

She wasn't crazy! She was just monologuing to herself! Completely normal and acceptable!

Ash watched on as Kenny returned Alakazam to it's Pokeball and bowed to the judges as they complimented and approved of his performance.

He couldn't help but think back to a few hours previous when he'd had his first official meeting with the 'illustrious' Kenny.

* * *

 _Ash yawned, kicking back he lay down on top of the picnic table he was sitting on folding his arms under his head in make-shift pillow._

 _Wincing slightly, the raven haired trainer shifted onto his side to keep an eye on his girlfriend who was sitting off to the side, near the battlefield outside the Pokemon Center they were staying at playing with Pikachu and Piplup._

 _Ash was careful not to jostle any of the five Pokeballs attached to his belt. He'd already greeted the newest arrivals or for some of them 'returners' as it were._

 _His ribs were still throbbing in pain slightly from the over enthusiastic greeting he got from one of his more affectionate Pokemon he'd decided on getting Professor Oak to send over to him from the Oak Ranch back in Pallet Town._

 _And he wasn't about to just send her back because she got a bit excited at seeing him. He'd rather take the pain than send her back to the Oak Ranch and hurt his Pokemons feelings in anyway._

 _"Hey, Dee-Dee!" Ash heard someone call. It was nobody he knew so he just ignored it._

 _Therefore, he was rather surprised when Dawn bolted up-right from her position sitting down._

 _"Only one person knows that name!" The blue haired Coordinator fretted to herself. Ash raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Dawn turned back ramrod straight and looked to the side._

 _Popping his head up on his hand, Ash watched what was about to occur with some form of morbid curiosity._

 _Walking towards her from the other side of the battle-field was that guy Kenny she had been talking to the other day who had sent Dawn into a tizzy._

 _And whether he knew it or not, cockblocked the Pokemon Ranger._

 _"Hey!" Kenny stated "What'a ya know? Dee-Dee's gotten herself a Pikachu, looks like she's all grown up." The red haired boy commented._

 _"Kenny!" Dawn raged at him, balling up her fists and ignoring both Pikachu and Piplup standing on either side of her, "Stop calling me Dee-Dee!" She shouted at him, her sapphire blue eyes glinting angrily._

 _"And it's not my Pikachu!" She corrected stiffly, before pointing over in Ash's direction, "It's his!"_

 _Ash raised his arm from his position on the picnic table, not even bothering to sit upright, "Yo." He greeted, introducing himself. "I'm Ash."_

 _"Nice to meet'cha!" Kenny replied with a large smile._

 _"See." Dawn began, "Ash is my boyfriend, and I've been travelling with him since I started my journey." She explained proudly with a large, bright smile of her own._

 _Kenny recoiled as if slapped, "Whaaat!" He shouted, his face scrunching up into a shocked yet, aghast expression., "Your 'BOYFRIEND?!'" He continued to yell, pointing wildly at Ash who continued to recline lazily on the picnic table watching in amusement as the red haired boys voice reached a higher decibel._

 _"Yeah." Dawn replied easily, not hesitating for a moment. Beckoning Kenny to her, Dawn led him over towards the picnic table Ash was sitting on._

 _Sighing in reluctant compliance, Ash slid down to sitting on one of the seats just as Dawn and Kenny made it to the table and sat down also._

 _"See Ash, I've known Kenny since kindergarten." Dawn explained once more when everyone was situated with something to sit on. "We used to play together as children."_

 _Piplup jumped up and plopped down on Dawn's lap, where as Pikachu hopped up and lay across Ash's shoulder in his usual perch, quieting down to listen to Dawn's story._

 _"I'm trying to remember your first Pokemon, but I'm drawing a blank." The blue haired girl continued._

 _Kenny smirked at her in reply, seemingly forgetting his shock over her revealing that Ash was her boyfriend. "Heh, I'll show ya." He told her as he stood up, pulling a Pokeball from his grey trousers pocket, "Come on out and meet everybody!" The red haired boy called out, releasing the Pokemon from within the confines of the Pokeball in a flash of white silvery energy._

 _The light died down a moment later, to reveal the Prinplup Ash saw with him and the Alakazam the other night standing proudly with its wings crossed over its chest._

 _"Preeeeeeeeen-Plup!" It cried deeply, and promptly... ignored Dawn after looking at her Piplup in disdain for some weird reason._

 _Dawn seemingly didn't notice though, "Wow a Prinplup!" Dawn gushed, "So that means you started with Piplup as well?" She inquired of Kenny._

 _Dawn pulled out her pink Pokedex before she could hear Kenny's reply and hit the scan button as she pointed it towards Prinplup, "Prinplup, the Penguin Pokémon, and the evolved form of Piplup. One blow from its wings is strong enough to knock down trees." The Pokedex recited mechanically._

 _"Wow that's awesome!" The blue haired girl praised the evolved form of Piplup. Ash summarised that she no doubt couldn't wait until Piplup evolved into such an impressive Pokemon because at the moment Piplup was rather small and his body was quite awkwardly shaped._

 _Piplup jumped down from Dawn's lap with an eye smile and ran over to Prinplup, holding his small blue wing out in a greeting._

 _Only for Prinplup to growl and smack Piplup harshly across the face sending the pre-evolved Pokemon tumbling into the ground with a surprised and pained cry._

 _"Hey!" Dawn called out angrily, "What was that for?" She demanded._

 _Ash sat up stiffly and Pikachu swiftly followed suit, growling angrily and cheeks sparking threateningly._

 _"Uhh.." Kenny trailed off, raising his arms in surrender, "I'm really sorry!" He apologized quickly, "Prinplup just doesn't like when anyone gets in it's space, I'm the only one Prinplup doesn't really have a problem with." He explained._

 _It was then that Ash spoke up for the first time since the other two humans out of the group sat down at the table. "You better fix that temper of it's soon then because a Pokemon like that is dangerous to those around it." The statement came from Ash's voice more like an order, "Pokemon like those are either to be kept away from others at all times as to not injure them, or they'll be confiscated until a time when they can be allowed to interact with others safely." The amber eyed ranger continued, his voice level and serious._

 _Kenny turned towards him dangerously, "Says who?" The Twinleaf town native demanded._

 _Ash snorted at him, he was in now way threatened or intimidated, "It's the law you twit." He answered easily, "I'm a Pokemon Ranger so unless you make sure that Pokemon is trained properly and learns to interact with others without attacking them for no reason other than them being in it's space." The raven haired teen continued, "Well then... I'll have to give my associates up at the Ranger HQ a call and tell them that some kid is toting around a dangerous and lethal without giving it proper training." The statement was made more real by Ash pulling a black rectangular device from his belt that slid out into a cellphone of some-kind that neither Dawn nor Kenny had ever seen before._

 _Seeing their questioning gazes, Ash answered, "Ranger HQ communicator." He told them simply._

 _After a tense moment, Ash sighed and put the communicator back on his belt, "So just make sure to keep Prinplup in line, or next time it may not be a guy like me who educates you." Ash told Kenny with a sigh, "You may just end up getting one of the hard-asses on your case and they'll just take Prinplup from you."_

 _Kenny gulped noticeably, "Really, they'd just taken Prinplup?" He questioned. Dawn nodding alongside him, peering at her boyfriend curious as to how he'd answer because he hardly ever divulged any information of Pokemon Ranger Operations despite how long they'd travelled together._

 _Ash nodded an affirmative, "The hard-asses are up tight assholes who think they know best, so a good deal of the time the self righteous pricks will act on their own judgement without asking anyone else for advice on the matters at hand." The raven haired ranger answered, his voice tinged with exasperation._

 _In his defense, he'd had to deal with quite a few of the hard-asses over the years, and the majority of them were all arrogant assholes who sneered down at anyone who wasn't famous or another Ranger, and even then they'd still do it behind their backs._

 _Arrogance effected everyone, Ranger or not. They may have dedicated their lives to the protection of Pokemon, but it was a job that paid very well, especially to those who did it full-time._

 _Ash himself was only a part-time Ranger because he was on a journey as a Trainer to learn and grow, hoping to achieve the Master level. And even as only a part-time Ranger he still got paid by the bucket load each month._

 _All three fell silent._

 _Ash went back to lazing away now that his piece was said. Kenny in a contemplative silence looking inquiringly between Ash, Dawn, Pikachu and Prinplup._

 _Dawn was staring at her boyfriend quizzically. She realized, that even now there was quite a bit she didn't know about her seemingly perfect boyfriend and mentor._

 _She had foolishly thought that, because Pokemon Rangers were out to protect Pokemon that they were all good people. Now she realized just how wrong she was, and that there were awful peoples just about everywhere._

 _She shuddered slightly in revulsion when she remembered the over-weight trainer with the Rhydon who had ambushed her way back in an attempt to steal her Pokemon, only for Ash to appear in all his blazing righteous – to her at least – glory and decimate the man's Pokemon before running him off with a death threat of epic proportions._

 _She'd later learned from her not as of yet boyfriend at the time that he'd tagged the man with a tracker device before he'd run him off, and made a call to the Ranger HQ to pick up the Pokemon Thief-Poacher._

 _According to Ash, he was serving twenty-five to life in the Ranger's prison, guarded day and night by highly trained Ranger operatives and Pokemon._

 _"Ughhh..." Dawn moaned planting her hands on her hips. To the side, Piplup had stood up angrily and puffed his small chest up glaring angrily at the Pokemon that was his evolved form attempting to square off with the much bigger penguin Pokemon. "Why can't they just get along..?" She sighed dejectedly, hanging her head in disappointment._

 _Ash idly turned his head as he answered, not even bothering to look up, "They're both Water Pokemon from the Penguin species, as well as both belonging to the same evolutionary." He answered lazily, "Usually, Pokemon like that will form rivalries with each other to prove which is the better man, uh, penguin Pokemon in this case I guess." He finished a little lamely._

 _Kenny turned to look at Dawn, before he grinned and chuckled mischievously. "I saw you at the Jubilife Contest." He stated, "Were you copying me?" The red haired boy asked her._

 _"No way, I wouldn't copy you if it would save my life!" Dawn rocketed back. She looked over at Piplup who was still puffing up to Prinplup and smiled, "Piplup and I were made for each other, isn't that right sweetie?" She asked her starter Pokemon._

 _Piplup leaned back and eye smiled as he answered, "Lup, Piplup!" He chirped back with a wave, before returning to his previous position of glaring at Prinplup._

 _Dawn turned to Kenny questioningly, "You were at the Jubilife Contest?" She questioned, before pressing on, "Were you competing?" The blue haired Coordinator pressed further._

 _Kenny's eyebrow twitched, and Ash watched the exchange in lazy amusement, "Excuse me?" He questioned disbelievingly, "My match was on TV weren't you watching?"_

 _Dawn rubbed the back of her beanie covered head with a sheepish smile, "Guess I was busy..." She trailed off lamely, "But I can't see you as a Coordinator!" She pushed on, hoping to change the subject with a bright smile._

 _Kenny snorted at her, "Well, just like you I've already made it to the finals but then I came up against the very same opponent you faced and she was so powerful." He told her seriously, "That girl Zoe and her Glameow are near enough unbeatable!" He proclaimed._

 _The red haired male Coordinator blinked when his proclomation was met with an awkward silence. "What?" He questioned stupidly as Ash continued to watch in lazy amusement and Dawn looked away with a barely suppressed grin, "What am I missing?" He asked confusedly._

 _"Well..." Dawn trailed off, turning back to face him and biting her lip to suppress the grin that she knew was just threatening to break through, "Didn't you see her previous match where she went up against Ash?" She asked, "And then Ash, after completely dominating her and using her to make his Larvitar evolve into Pupitar, gave up?" She pressed further once more, with another question._

 _"...I completely forgot about that..." Kenny admitted with a sheepish smile. It didn't last long though before he turned to Ash sharply, "Are you competing here as well?" He questioned his face set in a stone mask._

 _"No, he isn't, Ash is competing in the Sinnoh League." Dawn answered for him._

 _Ash yawned and finally sat up straight, rubbing a kink out of is neck as he did so. "That's right." He answered, turning his amber eyes onto Kenny, "I was really only looking for an opponent tough enough to make Larvitar evolve and just as importantly, to find an opponent who would push Dawn here to her limits and make her break through to a whole new level of battling."_

 _Kenny blinked, "Why would you want an opponent to push Dawn to her limits though?" He asked._

 _Dawn gave a sheepish laugh, "Well, Ash is my boyfriend, but when I started out travelling with him he was my mentor of sorts and agreed to teach me all about the stuff he's learned about Pokemon from all of his previous journeys over the years and show me the ropes as it were of Pokemon Training." The blue haired girlfriend of Ash answered._

 _Kenny looked at them oddly for a moment, hiding a slight wince at the mention of the word 'boyfriend' that only Ash caught. Shaking his head, Kenny gave a cheesy grin before leaning closer to Ash, hiding his mouth behind a raised hand. "I'm sure you've got your stories, but they don't hold a candle to my Dawn stories." He told Ash in a mock-whisper._

 _Ash gave an eerie smirk in return, his eyes flashing with a predatory expression as he glanced at Dawn slightly, "Oh I don't know about that. I know quite a bit of stories that Dawn is embarrassed about."_

 _Dawn stood up, glaring angrily at them both with her hands once again situated on her hips, "You guys wouldn't dare!" Her voice tinged with a threat._

 _Ash and Kennedy looked at each other and grinned wildly, before turning to look at Dawn and at the very same time replying, "No need to worry!" Then they erupted into loud uproarious laughter._

 _"Ughhh!" She screamed angrily, "You guys!" Dawn groused, gritting her teeth at them._

 _Growling, Dawn pointed at Kenny, "If you think I'm like I was way back when we were kids, you've got another thing coming and I'll prove it with a battle right here and now!" The blue haired girl shot off._

 _Kenny surprisingly enough ignored her rage induced challenge before turning to Ash and looking at the Pikachu on his shoulder, "What I want, is a battle with that Pikachu." He told Ash, "So how about it? Your Pikachu versus my Prinplup, up for it?" He questioned._

 _Pikachu from Ash's shoulder looked over at Prinplup for a moment, before snorting in amusement and closing his eyes to settle back down onto Ash's shoulder to continue his nap._

 _"Eh?" Kenny questioned dumbly._

 _"Ehehehehehe..." Ash scratched his head sheepishly this time, "Pikachu's developed a bit of an attitude lately because of how strong he's gotten over the years." Ash explained, "He won't battle any random challenger nowadays without their Pokemon proving their strength by beating another of my Pokemon." He continued to explain to Kenny._

 _Dawn snorted to herself in an unlady like fashion, "Yeah, fat load of good it's done your challengers thus far when you decimate them anyway." The blue haired girl muttered under her breath. Thankfully low enough to avoid Kenny hearing, but with his Aura enhanced senses Ash heard her easily enough and shot her a knowing grin before turning his attention back to Kenny._

 _"...That's kinda weird." Kenny replied flatly, "But okay then." He stated as he stood up and began walking towards the far side of the battle field, where the Trainer box was located to be precise. He looked over his shoulder and sent Ash a grin, "I'll take on any Pokemon you choose with Prinplup, so let's do it yeah?"_

 _Ash grinned right back at him. He'd been getting bored with the lax atmosphere anyway. "All right then!" He accepted, making his way towards the closest side of the battle field where the other trainer box was located._

 _Dawn followed behind, shaking her head, "Kenny, Kenny Kenny..." She muttered, her fingers placed across her forehead and her eyes shut as she shook her head at the apparent stupidity of her one time childhood friend._

 _"Alright then." Ash said when he took his place on the field, taking a Pokeball from his belt swiftly, "You ready?" He questioned his opponent._

 _"Yeah, let's do it!" Kenny replied eagerly as Prinplup fell into a loose stance in front of it's Trainer._

 _"Let's go, Bayleef!" Ash shouted as he released his Pokemon. In a bright silvery flash of energy, his over affectionate Bayleef appeared on the battle field infront of him. He'd caught her way back near the beginning of his Johto journey, and she was one of the strongest battlers of his Johto Team. Having gone head to head with the likes of Gary's extremely powerful Blastoise and Harrison's Houndoom, triumphing over the Fire type despite her weakness to the Pokemon for an amazing victory._

 _While she wasn't the strongest Pokemon he had, she was no push over as far as battle-wise. But when it came to him, she was just a big softie and loved to spend time with him whenever he visited her back at the Oak Ranch in Pallet Town._

 _Bayleef resembled a pale yellow suaropodian dinosaur with a small yellow tail. She had curled leaf-like growths, sprouting in a ring formation around her neck. A large leaf shaped like a scythe protruded from her head. She had red eyes, and had one large toenail on each of her four feet._

 _"Bay bay bay!" She cried happily before turning on her heel and practically blowing Ash off of his feet as she jumped on top of him and began to rub her cheek up against his happily._

 _"Hey hey!" Ash laughed, "Calm down girl, we have a battle!" He continued his voice happy and tinged with nostalgia._

 _Bayleef bounced up and nodded her head happily the scythe-like Leaf on her head billowing around as she did so. Turning on her heel once more, she happily padded onto the battle field and promptly glared at Prinplup._

 _As if it was it's fault that she couldn't spend more time happily nuzzling her trainer._

 _"Oh wow!" Dawn gushed from the sidelines, "What a gorgeous Bayleef! She's so big and majestic looking!" Honestly, she was surprised that she was surprised by Ash having another amazing Pokemon. And again, honestly he literally had every Regional starter Pokemon from both the Kanto and Johto regions, and he didn't start with any of them! Not to mention having the Grass starter of the Hoenn region and both the Fire and Grass starter from over here in the Sinnoh Region._

 _Where the hell did her boyfriend find all these rare Pokemon he had?_

 _...Now that she noticed, some of her boyfriends luck seemed to have rubbed off on her. Having an extremely powerful Ursaring, not to mention a revived pre-historic Pokemon in Kabutops and very rare alternately coloured Ponyta._

 _She'd only been a trainer for a little over a month. Dawn couldn't help but wonder where she'd be and how good a Coordinator she'd be a year from now. If the rate things were going at raining under her boyfriend continued she could probably end up winning her first Grand Festival!_

 _While Dawn was daydreaming, Ash decided to start the match, "All right Kenny, I'll let you and Prinplup have the first move." He shouted over to his opponent._

 _"Why thanks, don't mind if I do!" Kenny replied with a grin. Turning, he set a serious look on Prinplup, "Okay Prinplup, use Bubblebeam!" He ordered._

 _"Preeen!" His Pokemon cried in agreement. Opening it's beak Prinplup began to rapidly fire a multitude series of large glowing blue bubbles._

 _Ash smirked. A Special based attack from that distance? Child's play. "Bayleef, Mirror Coat." Ash said completely calm, smirk stretching just a tad._

 _Bayleef nodded before bracing herself against the ground and lowering her head. Her yellow body began to glow brightly with a powerful reflective substance of energy._

 _When the barrage of bubbles hit dead-set on Bayleef they merely reflected off of the glowing substance on her body, and rocketed back towards Prinplup twice as fast, and twice as powerful._

 _"What!" Kenny cried in shock, "Quick!" He called quickly, "Cut those Bubbles down with Metal Claw!"_

 _Prinplup's blue wings began to glow a bright silvery white with power just in time. The bubbles rapidly approached and Prinplup just managed to slash it's wings through the air, enhanced by Metal Claw and dissected the bubbles, its body a blur to the human eye as it flowed straight into form against the other bubbles and within moments, every single bubble had been dispersed, all that remained of the attack being small flickers of blue energy that slowly fell to the ground._

 _"Razor Leaf!" Ash commanded once more, his voice deadly calm._

 _Bayleef swung her head from side to side a few times rapidly, and sent a barrage of razor sharp rapidly spinning leaves soaring through the air towards Prinplup from the scythe-like leaf on her head._

 _"Crap, doesn't this guy ever let up? Prinplup jump into the air to dodge!" The red haired trainer called out urgently._

 _Prinplup swiftly followed suit and bent at the knee's quickly before launching itself soaring high into the air._

 _"Heh." Ash smirked once again, "Grab it with Vine Whip Bayleef, then drag it down and hit it dead on with Headbutt!" The amber eyed ranger ordered._

 _Faster than Kenny could issue another order to his Pokemon, two long light green vines rocketed out from the leaf-like formations around Bayleef's neck and swiftly wrapped around Prinplup's wings immobilizing it mid-air._

 _With a jerk of her neck, Bayleef pulled with all her strength and brought Prinplup soaring through the air towards her._

 _Using her vines, she ran and pulled herself into a jump with them and met Prinplup mid-air scoring a devastating Headbutt straight to the Water penguin's solar-plexus and sent it rocketing into the ground so hard it bounced back up into the air with a cry of pain before falling into a roll and landing in a heap in front of it's trainer Kenny._

 _Bayleef landed deftly, just as Kenny gave an encouraging cry of, "C'mon stand up Prinplup I know you can do it!"_

 _Prinplup managed to shakily pull itself to it's feet, although the bottom half of its stomach and some of its chest was covered in a deep purple bruised welt._

 _Ash looked it over and winced. It wasn't a bad injury for the most part, but it was one of those incredibly painful ones. "Alright, Bayleef." He began, "Let's finish this here in one more move before Prinplup can get hurt to much more." He continued, nodding an affirmative to Bayleef as she looked him in his amber eyes with her own red ones, "Yeah, use SolarBeam." He ordered._

 _Bayleef nodded, the leaf-like formation around her neck beginning to glow a bright silvery white with power as she absorbed the suns rays into herself._

 _"Prinplup!" Kenny shouted sharply, "Don't let that Bayleef fire her attack or it's over, use Drill Peck!"_

 _Prinplup obeyed without hesitation and it's beak and crown glowed a bright silvery white as well, before the penguin Pokemon took off in a sprint and jumped high into the air and began spinning so fast it flew towards Bayleef like a Pokemon sized drill._

 _Ash didn't even blink, "Stop it in place with Vine Whip." He ordered, "Slam it into the ground and hold it there, then unleash Solarbeam and finish it off." He pushed on, adding onto his order._

 _Kenny's eyes widened in shock as Bayleef obeyed and even while she continued to concentrate on absorbing the suns rays and powering up a Solarbeam simultaneously allowed her two light green vines to rocket from her neck towards Prinplup._

 _It came as a shock, that between the Grass and Flying type moves, the Grass type move won. Prinplup was caught swiftly between the vines despite he drill like formation it was in and slammed into the ground harshly, splintering the ground beneath the Water Pokemon._

 _Groaning, Prinplup struggled to stand up but the vines kept it pushed tightly into the ground. And then a second later, it didn't even have a chance to counter because, it's vision was filled with a bright white light before it faded to black._

 _Bayleef unleashed massive blinding white beam of energy that washed over Prinplup so fast it was over in the blink of an eye._

 _When the bright light of the Solarbeam died down Prinplup came back into view laying completely out-cold in the splintered battle field below its body._

 _Even though only the back of Prinplup could be seen by the spectators, it was easy to see that the energy rays of the Solarbeam had burnt it rather badly._

 _It's blue feathers were signed all over, burnt completely black in some places. Prinplup was just lucky that the beam had washed over it instead of crashing into it full on because with an attack of that magnitude ploughing into it and without its defences up, Prinplup could have been put into a critical condition._

 _Luckily for Kenny and Prinplup though, Ash was an experienced battler and not a vindictive person. So he'd intentionally had Bayleef position Prinplup so that the beam of energy would wash over the immobile Pokemon, and not crash straight into it. So, it would be fine with a few hours rest and some treatment from the local Nurse Joy._

 _"Prinplup!" Kenny cried out in worry, rushing over to his Pokemon and checking it over._

 _"Kenny!" Ash called to him as he began walking towards Bayleef, "Prinplup should be fine in a few hours of rest, but you best go get it checked up on by Nurse Joy to make sure." He told his opponent._

 _Kenny sighed and returned Prinplup to its Pokeball in a beam of red energy and stood up. "Thanks Ash." He sent Ash a grateful smile, "And great battle, you had me on the ropes and positioned me into a losing position from the very beginning." The red haired teen turned on his heel and began rushing towards the Pokemon Center to get his Pokemon checked up, but not before giving Ash one last parting word, "I learned a lot from that battle, so thanks."_

 _Ash tossed him a wave and a smile, and turned his attention to his Bayleef just as he reached her. "Good battle girl." He praised her with a smile, rubbing her head gently, "You've gotten a lot stronger since way back when we travelled in Johto, I'm proud."_

 _"Bay bay bay!" The Grass type Pokemon chanted happily._

 _"Hehe!" Ash chuckled before lifting her Pokeball, "You did great, have a nice long rest girl." And with that last parting shot, he returned her to her Pokeball in a beam of red energy before she could voice her displeasure and being separated from him again._

 _He didn't even blink as Dawn made her presence by jumping onto his back and kissing his cheek from behind, "That was a great battle." She congratulated him._

 _"It was fun." He agreed, "So that's a childhood friend of yours?" Ash asked of his girlfriend._

 _"Yup!" Dawn chirped, wrapping her arms around his neck and looping her legs through his arms when he held them up under her thighs to lift her higher on his back, "Kenny's kind of annoying, but he's a good friend for the most part." She lamented to him._

 _Ash chuckled, "He's pretty good." He commented, "He's very skilled for only being a trainer a few months, he'll go far In the contest circuit." He praised._

 _"Really?" Dawn asked._

 _"Yeah." Ash affirmed. "Now." He began, "Let's go get some lunch at a restaurant I saw yesterday on my way back to our room with Monferno, and then we can go check out the Contest Hall." The Pokemon Ranger continued, his statement punctuated by his stomach rumbling loudly._

 _Dawn snorted in laughter, "I swear Ash, with how much you eat it's a good thing we travel on foot so much and that you like to join in on your Pokemon's physical training regiments or else you'd end up some fat blob that waddled around everywhere." She mock-insulted._

 _Ash 'hmmm'ed' thoughtfully before grinning, "Now that you mention it..." He trailed off, his hands sliding up from her thighs and cupping her derrière, squeezing the fleshy cheeks underneath her skirt gently, getting a slight moan from his blue haired girlfriend, "You seem to have put on some weight back here, I can definitely feel it."_

 _Dawn gasped in outrage, "Ash Ketchum!" She shouted at him, "My ass is not fat!"_

 _Ash grinned as he began to walk towards where he remembered seeing the restaurant, "Sure sure Dawnie..."_

* * *

Ash came out of his reminiscing just in time. Because as the latest Coordinator and his Hypno walked off the stage after getting a loud roar of applause from the crowd, Marian announced just who he was waiting to see with the most anticipation.

"Our next contestant is coming up now!" Marian's voice reverberated around the massive Contest Hall, "She hails from Twinleaf town right here in the Sinnoh Region, and appeared in her first contest over in Jubilife Ciy a few weeks ago where she went right to the finals and almost won!" The master of contests continued to build up suspense, "Everybody, give a warm welcome to Dawn!"

The red curtains peeled away and Dawn came jogging out onto the stage, waving her hand to the crowd and smiling wildly.

"Kabutops, spotlight!" Dawn called out as she released the pre-historic Pokemon from within the Seal encased Pokeball.

In a flowing blue wave of water, Kabutops crashed down beside Dawn before slashing his bladed arms and dissecting the wave into tiny little droplets of water that splashed to the ground gently.

"Oh my!" Marian commented into her microphone, "And Dawn stuns us all by releasing one of the incredibly rare, pre-historic Pokemon Kabutops! Just how did she get a Pokemon like that?" She wondered in disbelief.

The crowds roar of applause reached a whole new level.

Ash smirked, "They haven't seen anything yet." He said to himself confidently as he stared down at his girlfriend's form, Kabutops towering beside her and looking at the mass amounts of people rather warily yet awaiting Dawn's orders. The Bug Pokemon's nervousness actually worked out, as it made him twitchy and shuffling, which made him look more... authentic? Ash couldn't quite put it to words, but she was definitely getting bonus points.

Ash was impressed just how far Kabutops had come in just a short amount of time, "Blow them all away with your performance, Dawnie."

* * *

"WHAT... THE... HELL?!" Kenny shouted loudly as he stared at the TV scree in the Contest Coordinator waiting room, "How the hell did she get a Kabutops?" He wondered.

It didn't take to long for him to put two and two together though, "Ash..." Kenny sighed to himself, the answer was rather obvious. "Man if that's the perks of dating him I should get a sex change and try and date him myself..." The red haired teen in green matador outfit commented.

Every male near Kenny simultaneously took a few large steps away from him, looking at him warily as if he might just try to grope them.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Dawn calmed her jittery nerves and thundering heart. "Kabutops, Ancient Power!" The blue haired Coordinator ordered.

Kabutops held his bladed arms over his head, and formed a truly massive boulder glowing with bright silver energy, before promptly tossing it high into the air above himself and Dawn.

After a few moments of soaring high into the air, the massive boulder began it's descent straight down towards Dawn where if it hit she would most likely be crushed to death.

Dawn allowed it to continue falling, building up every single nerve in her body and putting up brave façade. She waited another few moments, and just as the massive boulder's descent closed in on her, Dawn snapped out her next orders, "Blow it apart with Aurora Beam, and then catch the debris with Giga Drain!"

Kabutops obeyed instantly and aimed his head towards the descending boulder. From his mouth, Kabutops began to form a small greenish-blue energy sphere and powered it up steadily.

A moment later, the small sphere erupted into a large glowing green trimmed black beam of energy that impacted with the large glowing boulder, piercing straight through the Ancient Power attack and exploding.

The boulder exploded in mid-air and began raining down glowing silver debris. Kabutops flowed straight into his next attack. From the segments on his back, a large tendril of green energy rapidly flowed out into the air and blanketed the air allowing the glowing silver rocks to float gently in the air from the sea of green energy.

"Now..." Dawn breathed out finally, "Finish this off with Night-slash!" The bluenette commanded once more.

Taking off in a fast sprint, Kabutops lashed out with glowing bladed arms of deep red energy, cutting and dissecting the energy of Giga Drain and the glowing silver debris into falling specks of flickering energy which rained down around Dawn.

Three colours flickered within the make-shift rain, the silver from the Ancient Power, the green from the Giga Drain and finally the red from the final Night-slash.

Coming out of his sprint, Kabutops slid easily to Dawn's side bladed arms poised to attack whatever it perceived to be a threat to his Trainer.

The crowd was silent for a moment, so silent a pin could have been heard being dropped over the entirety of the Contest Hall.

But that silent moment didn't last, for the next moment the crowd erupted into a roar of applause so loud, Ash couldn't hear himself think and Pikachu held his long sensitive ears in pain.

"Amazing! Truly a splendid performance, the combination of power, speed and the trust Dawn showed in her Pokemon kept me riveted!" Mr. Contesta said from his seat at the judges table.

"Remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo agreed.

Nurse Joy spoke up last, "It was so easy to see Kabutops' rare talent, I couldn't take my eyes off of both Trainer and Pokemon as they worked in perfect sync." The beautiful nurse concluded in her usual soft spoken voice.

Dawn bowed to the judges with a giddy smile, before returning Kabutops to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy and turning on her heel to walk back towards the Coordinator waiting area.

"Amazing!" Marian shouted loudly into her microphone, her voice echoing over the overly loud crowd, "Let's hope that there's more performance's just like Dawn and Kabutops', and with hope there may even be someone with enough talent to top that amazing performance."

* * *

Ash wasn't really paying much attention to the rest of the performances. He was mentally cataloguing every single detail of Dawn's performance. While the performance wasn't perfect, it also wasn't far from it.

The biggest mistake he saw was her freezing up slightly when the Ancient Power attack descended towards her. Not that much of a surprise for someone who hadn't been in many if any dangerous situations, and was certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

Finally, a good twenty minutes later after Dawn's performance, Marian announced that it was time for those moving on to the 2nd round to be selected.

"And now it's time for the judges results! These are the Coordinators who will be moving on down the line to the next round!" Marian cheered into her microphone as the camera zoomed in on the large blank screen that was high above the audience in the Contest Hall.

The screen suddenly blinked on as one by one, faces started to appear.

Ash smirked when the first face to appear on the screen was that of his girlfriend and quite nicely stated that she had the best performance out of everyone who competed so far, and was thus basically the Coordinator to beat and who most would be betting on to take the win and the Floaroma Town Ribbon.

The next five were Coordinators he didn't know, but finally the seventh face to appear was Kenny's.

Ash nodded, he'd been sure Kenny would get through to the next round as well as Dawn. Finally the eighth face to appear was another nondescript Coordinator he hadn't been paying attention to earlier in the Contest.

"Well." Ash started as he stood up, shifting Pikachu from his lap back onto his perch on his shoulder, "That's that." He continued, "I guess I'll go check up on Dawn before the next round starts up."

With that said, he began to make his way from his seat in the audience and down towards the Coordinator waiting area.

* * *

 _ **-Omake-**_

 _ **A Day In The Life Of Charizard**_

Charizard woke up slowly, completely relaxed and assured he had complete dominance of his reserve. He stood, stretching, and absently stomped on the protruding tail of one of the lesser Charizard he'd been laying on. It made for an uncomfortable sleep, but nothing taught his flock who was the boss better than beating the shit out of them and sleeping on their unconscious bodies.

He ate his breakfast in peace, atop the mountain his cave was situated on, spicing the juicy Dragonair corpse with some ground up Parasect.

After he was thoroughly sated he flew around for a few hours, occasionally breaking his flight path to grab a boulder and throw it down upon his flock below. It kept them on their toes, or crushed them, whatever method taught them a lesson better.

There was some momentary excitement as one of the reserves newest additions though to challenge him.

Roughly twenty seconds later - Charizard had been sporting and let the little upstart monologue for a bit - the youngling took the place of the boulders he'd been using previously and slammed into another Charizard too slow to get out of the way.

He left the reserve briefly to hunt down and fight his lunch, today's being a particularly ornery Gyarados that had been firing jets of water into the preserve.

He returned to find he had apparently been 'overthrown' by three powerful looking Charizards flexing their arms in front of some unamused looking females.

The ensuing fight was pleasantly challenging, but ended with the three tied together in amusing positions. The females were eyeing him appreciatively, their body language showing their interest. Naturally, within moments Charizard was carrying all four females back to his cave, showing little sign of being affected by their combined weight.

He only emerged for dinner, which was uneventful, followed by practising a few moves. Physical training followed, which he deviated from his normal routine during to use the youngling he'd fought earlier in the air's face as a speed bag to practice his punches.

On the way back to his cave he was ambushed by Charla, and after a long and challenging fight left her satisfied in more ways than one sprawled out on a nice warm flat rock.

He stopped briefly outside his cave to fry another youngling who was trying to claim his home as their own. He made a satisfying 'poomph!' as he hit the ground.

Charizard huffed fondly of the little thing, he reminded him of himself. None the less he entered his cave, only to find a revitalized Charla, her teeth bared challengingly, with the four females from earlier flanking her.

His tail flame exploding, Charizard charged forward with an eager but challenging roar of his own.

Such was the life of Charizard.


	12. Chapter 12

"What the hell Dee-Dee!" Kenny exclaimed loudly as he shook Dawn back and forth by the shoulders, "How the hell did you get a freaking Kabutops of all Pokemon!" He pushed on, his voice just as loud in question.

Ash raised an eyebrow at the scene as he swiftly entered the Coordinator waiting room. "Am I interrupting something?" He inquired with an amused smile tugging at his lips.

Kenny turned to look at him before shaking his head rapidly in the negative. "No, I just want to know how the hell she got a Kabutops!"

"Ah." Ash said in response, "That was just luck really, he broke out of a Museum in Oreburgh City and attacked Dawn." The amber eyed teen stated, before he pushed on. "Then she battled Kabutops, defeated him and caught him." He finished smoothly.

"Yup!" Dawn chirped in as she moved over to beside her boyfriend and held the victory sign up at Kenny, grinning mockingly at him.

Kenny sighed dejectedly, "Oh mannnnnnn..." He trailed off in a whine, "I was hoping to go catch one if you found it somewhere in the wild."

"Uh-uh." Dawn replied, shaking her head from side to side, "It was just luck on my part really Kenny." She explained.

Ash wisely looked away when they both tried to catch his eyes. He didn't need to inform him of the underground cavern at Grandpa Canyon back in Kanto where there was a slumbering group of Kabuto, Omanyte, Kabutops, Omastar and one rather testy Aerodactly.

Nor did he need to tell them about the Kabuto filled island over in the Orange Islands.

And he definitely didn't need to tell them about the underground springs over in the Johto Region where a massive family of Omanyte and Omastar were living out their lives.

And then again, he probably also shouldn't tell them about the island over in the Hoenn Region where a couple of scientists had revitalized a group of Lileep, Anorith, Cradily and Armaldo.

Ash sweat-dropped slightly. ' _Damn, I get into some crazy ass adventures sometimes._ ' He thought to himself.

He wasn't quite sure if he was one of the luckiest trainers alive, or one of the unluckiest. What with how many times he'd found rare and valuable Pokemon, yet came close to losing his life on multiple occasions during these finds.

…At least his life was never boring...?

Ash was broken from his musings by the speakers over-head blaring with Marian's voice, " _Now the second round is about to begin, and our first battlers up are Dawn and Ginger._ " She revealed, " _Coordinators, please report to the battle field!_ " She followed up.

"Already?!" Dawn squeaked, holding her face in worry.

Ash chuckled, "No need to worry." He said, quoting his girlfriends favourite phrase. Leaning forward, he pecked her on the lips light, ignoring how Kenny grimaced slightly and looked away, "Just keep your head clear, and you've got this battle in the bag." The Ranger told his girlfriend.

"Right!" Dawn replied, bouncing on her heels suddenly losing all of her nervousness.

Ash grinned, and held his hand in the air causing Dawn to grin in return. Reaching up, she high-fived him before walking towards the door, "Just watch me win this guys." Was her last parting remark as she disappeared out of the door frame.

Shifting Pikachu on his shoulder a bit, Ash sent Kenny a nod, "Well, I'm going back up to sit in the stands." He told the younger boy, " Good luck!"

"Kay'." Kenny replied, tossing him a wave, "And thanks!"

"No probs." Ash told him with a grin as he made like his girlfriend before him and disappeared through the door frame, making his way back towards his seat in the stands so he could watch her battle.

* * *

Ash looked intently down at his girlfriend, once again shifting Pikachu back down on to his lap, ' _Show me how far you've come, Dawn._ '

* * *

With both Coordinators situated on opposite sides of the battle field, Marian swished her hand down the air, "Coordinators, begin!" The brown haired MC declared, taking a few steps backwards from the battle field.

"Take the stage!" Dawn's opponent Ginger called, releasing the Pokemon from within the Seal encased Pokeball in her hand. She was a tall woman, with a deep maroon coloured hair that fell halfway down her back. Her outfit consisted of a light green party dress, with black stilleto high heels and elbow length white gloves.

The Pokeball burst open, allowing a large pink heart to materialize in mid-air before it exploded sending hundreds of smaller hearts flying over the arena floor, dying down moments later to reveal a Miltank landing in front of its trainer Ginger and her obvious choice for the battle.

Miltank was a mostly pink colored bipedal cow Pokemon with blue eyes, small horns and a long, cream-colored tail with a black ball attached to the end. The Normal Type Pokemon had a cream colored belly with an udder, and black spots on it's back, as well as a black hood that covered the Pokemon's head which the small white horns sprouted from.

Dawn smirked, "Ursaring, spotlight!" She shouted, releasing her own Pokemon from his Pokeball in a massive flash of lightning that roared up high into the air, before dispersing as Ursaring appeared from within the lightning and slashed it in half with his powerful claws.

* * *

Kenny, who was watching Dawn's battle intently on the surveillance TV quirked an eyebrow, "That's an interesting choice of Pokemon for a Contest Battle." He commented to himself, before he narrowed his eyes in thought, "What are you planning Dee-Dee?" He questioned the the thin air in front of him in a whisper.

* * *

"Miltank, Rollout!" Ginger called out, pointing her finger in Ursaring's direction with a flourish.

"Mil mil!" The Miltank responded before jumping into the air and folding its body inwards until it resembled a large pink ball. Landing, the Miltank began to spin rapidly before shooting off towards Ursaring.

Dawn was ready for it though, "Ursaring!" The bluenette Coordinator called to her Pokemon, gaining its attention, "Use Bulk Up, and then catch it!" Dawn ordered.

Ursaring nodded, and gave a roar as he flexed his arms. The Normal Type Pokemon glowed a deep red before situating his legs firmly on the arena floor, and just in time brought his paws out in front of him and caught the rolling Miltank.

Ursaring was pushed back slightly, but held firm.

"Hammer Arm!" Dawn followed up quickly, before Ginger could get a word in edge wise.

Ursaring obeyed and allowed a disoriented Miltank to drop to the floor and brought down a glowing with white silvery energy arm on its head.

"Miiilll!" Miltank screeched in pain, rolling onto its back and clutching its head in pain.

Up above the arena, the yellow circle below Gingers picture lost a quarter of its yellow colouring, leaving that part black, signifing she'd lost a quarter of her points already, and as the clock read the match was only thirteen seconds in.

"Thunder Wave, and then roll backwards!" Ginger snapped out, her voice tinged with desperation.

Miltank, while in a lot of pain from the Fighting Type attack, seeing as it was a Normal Type and weak to Fighting Types, obeyed and rolled backwards, firing a stream of blue electricity from its udders at Ursaring as it went.

"Slash it apart!" Dawn commanded hurriedly when she saw the electricity.

Ursaring's claws glowed a bright white and he brought down both claws over the stream of electricity, dissecting it and turning it into harmless vapours of energy just like he had the lightning from the pokeball seal.

Dawn growled when she noted that Miltank had got to its feet, ignoring the large purple bruise adorning its forehead.

"Miltank, use Milk Drink!" Ginger ordered.

Dawn wasn't about to let that happen though, she recognized it as a recovery attack her boyfriend had told her about when he covered them. It was a recovery technique, that was original to the Miltank line and no other line of Pokemon could learn it.

"Stop it!" Dawn cried out, "Use Focus Blast, ring style!" The blue haired Coordinator continued in one breath, wasting no time at all.

As Miltank began to glow a light pink, Ursaring launched large turquoise ball of energy from between his hands that speed across the arena to fast for most to follow.

"Stop using Milk Drink and dodge!" Ginger shouted to her Pokemon desperately.

Miltank abandoned healing itself, but as it went to dodge the sphere that was Focus Blast split apart into ten smaller turquoise orbs which began to rapidly encircle the Dairy Cow Pokemon.

"Now, implode them!" Dawn commanded.

Ursaring grunted and raised his arms into the air, before sharply pulling them down and close together as if pulling two parts of a string over one another.

The ten small orbs of turquoise energy jetted from all around Miltank, straight into the defenceless Pokemon and exploded with enough force to make the arena shake slightly and kick up a large cloud of smoke.

"No, Miltank!" Ginger screamed, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

Dawn held her breath, waiting to see the outcome of the attack yet ready to act without a moments hesitation to enable her to win this round and move on, she was accepting no losses this time around.

The blue haired Coordinator released a sigh of relief when the smoke cleared to reveal Miltank. The Normal Type Pokemon was flat on its back and completely out cold and unresponsive to its Trainers commands.

"Whoooo!" Marian cheered along with the now roaring crowd, "What a win! 56 seconds into the first round Dawn Berlitz walks away as our winner of this battle in a flawless victory!" The announcing woman declared into her microphone loudly.

Up above, Gingers picture on the large screen was knocked off and Dawn's picture increased in size and took up the entirety of the screen, with a large banner declaring 'WINNER' above it.

Smiling, Dawn patted Ursaring on the arm before returning him to his Pokeballs and took a short bow to the crowd

Standing up from her bow, Dawn gave a short wave before hurriedly walking of the stage.

* * *

"So that's Dee-Dee's plan!" Kenny realized, snapping his fingers, "She used Ursaring's immense strength and durability to stop Miltanks attacks in its tracks, and then followed up with a pair of powerful yet diverse attacks and overwhelmed her opponents." The young red-haired Twinleaf native explained to himself.

He raised an eyebrow when he noticed something else, "She's implementing a lot of the same tactics Ash battled me with earlier." He said aloud in realization, "Could it be that because Ash taught her how to battle, she intends to mimic his battle style but use a bit more flare to draw in more of an appeal in contests?" Kenny wondered.

He gulped slightly. He was suddenly a lot more nervous about his chances. He'd used his strongest Pokemon in Prinplup against Ash, and he'd been out-matched and out-battled from the very beginning.

Could he beat Dawn if she was being taught personally how to battle by an experienced and powerful trainer like Ash?

Shaking his head, Kenny slapped both of his cheeks to rid himself of such thoughts, ' _No!'_ He declared loudly within the confines of his mind, ' _Dawn only started her journey a little over a month ago, there's no way she's experienced enough in using Ash's battle style, she isn't Ash so she'll be nowhere near as good as he is with it.'_ Kenny continued to think confidently.

" _Our next battling pair is Kenny and Rolando!_ " Marian shouted out over the intercom, " _Will our contestants please report to the battle field?_ " She requested.

Shaking himself once more, Kenny straightened out his posture and literally marched out of the waiting room, "Ash or no Ash, I'll still beat Dee-Dee!" He declared, a finger raised for dramatic effect.

He ignored the fact that there was nobody in the hallway to receive his dramatic declaration.

* * *

Ash smirked as he saw his girlfriend leave the stage, idly scratching a once again snoring in blissful sleep Pikachu behind the ears, ' _That was almost a mirror copy of how I battle.'_ The teen thought to himself proudly, ' _Though she's still got a ways to go before she'll be able to use it as fluidly as me_ _and my Pokemon can.'_

"Still," Ash conceded, his tone implying he was impressed, "That was a good little trick with that Focus Blast, I'll have to remember that one."

He settled down and focused more as he saw Kenny walk out onto the stage, ready to battle. Ash sweat-dropped slightly, "Is he... marching?" He questioned dubiously.

* * *

Indeed, Kenny was marching. A flaming determination shone clearly in his eyes as he marched his body straight up to his side of the battle stage. His body was tense, ready to react to anything and everything.

His hand clutched the SEAL encased Pokeball in his palm tightly, poised to release the Pokemon from the confines within at a moments notice.

His opponent, Rolando confidently made his way to his own side of the field. He was a young man, albeit still quite a bit older than Kenny seeing as he looked to be nearing the end of his teen years. He was tall, with a slight muscular build and windswept brown hair and the teen near enough man was donned in a pristine black tuxedo.

Marian looked back and forth between Kenny and Rolando, before swinging her hand straight up into the air, "Alright! Everybody the next match between Kenny from Twinleaf Town and Rolando from Sunnyshore City is about to begin!" The brown haired MC spoke loudly and clearly into her microphone, her voice travelling across the large contest hall easily, "Are you ready?" She questioned next, building up suspense.

When the crowd roared loudly in reply, she grinned and swished her hand back down, "All right then!" She declared, her grin stretching her face. "Coordinators, begin!" Marian conceded, taking a few quick steps back from the battle field so she didn't get caught up in what was no doubt going to be an exciting battle.

As one, both Coordinators pitched their Pokeballs releasing the two Pokemon within.

"Claydol, let's rock it!" Rolando declared loudly, releasing his Pokemon in a burst of purple psi energy that swelled together before bursting and revealing Claydol floating gently in front of its Trainer.

Claydol had a large black body with two small, stubby legs. The gently floating Pokemon had a wide, rounded head with a protrusion on the top and a remarkable, encircling pattern. The pattern consisted of a wavy white frame on its circular pink eyes, each with a dot-like pupil and seemingly alternating expressions on each eye with small, beak-like yellow segments between each eye. Claydol's chest had white ring-like patterns with extensions of the design pointing downward and yellow circles in the middle. The cannon-like segments that worked as the Pokemon's arms were kept firmly to its sides.

* * *

"What kind of Pokemon is that?" Dawn inquired into the air. She'd never seen or even heard of 'Claydol' before.

Turning around, she reached into her small handbag that came with her pink contest dress and withdrew her pink Pokedex

Lifting the Pokedex to the waiting room screen, she hit the scan button and awaited the results.

" _Claydol, the Clay Doll Pokémon. Claydol is the evolved form of Baltoy. These ancient Pokémon are said to come alive when a mysterious light instilled life into clay creatures created in ancient times. Claydol can fly and are able to fire beams made up of powerful energy from both arms_."

"Oh wow, it's a dual Ground and Psychic type Pokemon." Dawn read from the additional information on the Pokedex. "That must be a unique typing." The blue haired Coordinator guessed. She knew quite a lot about Pokemon nowadays thanks to her boyfriend, yet this was the first time she'd ever heard of a dual Ground and Psychic Pokemon.

Trailing further down the information provided, she was rather surprised to find that there were very few set areas that Claydol lived.

According to the Pokedex, they tended to live away from human societies and usually took up residence in abandoned temple's or deserts.

The only two areas that were known to house families of the Pokemon were the Sky Pillar over in the Hoenn Region near Pacifidlog Town, and the Relic Castle that was located somewhere called the 'Desert Resort' in the Unova Region.

The last part stumped her, seeing as even her boyfriend had admitted that he'd seen very few Unova native Pokemon and they were all on TV, for the most part.

The only one Ash had revealed to her that he'd actually seen in person was a Hydreigon. And it belonged to Drake of the Hoenn Elite Four.

Hydreigon, Ash had told her, was the Unova Region's resident Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon line. It was a rather unique family of Pokemon even amongst Psuedo-Legendaries seeing as it was a dual Dragon and Dark type Pokemon.

But other than that, they were known for being extremely powerful and very hard to tame. Just like the rest of the Psuedo-Legendaries, those being Dragonite the native of the Kanto Region, Tyranitar the native of the Johto Region, Salamence and Metagross native residents of the Hoenn Region and finally Garchomp the Pseudo-Legendary native to the Sinnoh Region.

Dawn shook her head, feeling suddenly confused. Despite these Pokemon being native to specific Region's it wasn't unheard of to find some of each family line throughout every Region because of migration.

Although, it was very unlikely that you'd find a Hydregion outside of Unova or any of the others in Unova because of the sheer distance between that Region and the others.

Shaking her head once again, Dawn rid herself of her thoughts and focused on the waiting room TV screen once again. ' _Let's see how good you really are in battle Kenny, I didn't get to see much because you battled Ash the last time._ ' The bluenette thought to herself as she watched the screen intently.

* * *

Kenny was undeterred by his opponent's Pokemon being released first, and continued on releasing his own.

"Prinplup, let's hit it!" Kenny called his own signature 'phrase'.

Nowadays, every Coordinator had a specific phrase they declared upon entering battles and the like. Although, it was considered bad taste and the act of an amateur to use someone else's 'battle phrase'.

Prinplup burst out from inside its Pokeball riding a wave of glistening golden stars. They died down after a moment and allowed Prinplup to land deftly upon its feet and raise a challenging wing in the direction of the Claydol floating at the opposite side of the field from the Water Pokemon.

"Sandstorm, now!" Rolando commanded his Pokemon sharply, starting the battle off.

Claydol obeyed and spun rapidly mid-air. The air became heavier with condensed grains of sand conjured by the Pokemon, before the air from its rapid spinning kicked up and became a violent churning storm of wind and sand that blew rapidly towards Prinplup.

"Counter it with Mist." Was Kenny's own command on reaction.

Opening its beak Prinplup released a large thick sparkling cloud that met the Sandstorm head on. Both weather effecting attacks clashed and held steady for a few moments before imploding unto each other and raining down upon the battlefield slowly and gently as flickering light blue and brown sparkles of energy. The energy that made up said attacks.

Up above, both Coordinators lost a quarter of their yellow bars.

Kenny smirked though, and he waited.

He didn't have to wait long though, because Rolando fired right back into attacking. "Hit it with Psybeam!" The older Coordinator ordered.

* * *

Up above, Ash smirked. ' _It's a good thing I had Bayleef hold back on that Solarbeam or Prinplup would still be recovering.'_ He thought.

Although, his smirk wasn't because of his thoughts. It was because he noted Kenny's own smirk. Ash had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen next.

* * *

Claydol lifted both cannon-like arms from its sides and fired two multi-coloured beams of powerful Psychic energy towards Prinplup.

' _Let's use an Ash tactic, with a little twist._ ' Kenny thought, his grin stretching just a bit.

When the two beams were mere moments from reaching Prinplup, Kenny acted. "Return to sender with Metal Claw!" The red haired TwinLeaf native commanded.

Prinplup obeyed without a moments hesitation and swung two arms of glowing white energy out and deftly batted both beams of Psi energy back towards the Claydol with a nimble spin.

But Kenny wasn't finished there, and as his Pokemon came out of its spin facing Claydol once more he continued on his offensive commands, "Now, wrap that present up nicely with Bubblebeam!"

Prinplup seemed to get the gist of what its Trainer was telling it to do, and so once more opened its jaw. From its beak, Prinplup fired a large multitude of glowing turquoise bubbles of energy that rapidly spiralled around the two beams of Psi energy and forced both of them to combine into a larger and thicker beam of multi-coloured energy.

"Shit!" Rolando cursed, "Defend with Rapid Spin!" He called out to his Pokemon desperately, the combined attack of Bubblebeam and Psybeam was approaching too fast for him to think of an appropriate counter attack.

Claydol obeyed once again and began to spin rapidly in place, just as the combined force of Bubblebeam and Psybeam crashed into it.

Claydol ground into the combined attacks as hard as it could in an attempt to defend itself from the onslaught, but it wasn't to be.

It seemed to hold up against the attacks, but after a few moments the combined attacks slowly overpowered the defending Rapid Spin before completely overwhelming Claydol and blasting the dual Ground and Psychic Pokemon into the field harshly in a powerful explosion of energy.

Up above, as the timer went past the 3:30 minute mark Rolando lost another large chunk of yellow from his score bar and was left with barely a third remaining.

When the smoke died down, Claydol came back into view. Two of its eyes were completely closed off and the eyelids coloured a vibrant purplish blue with bruising and it was bleeding from a large gash on its side. But the Pokemon held strong and steadily floated back up into the air.

"Yeah, way to go Claydol!" Rolando congratulated his Pokemon, pumping his fist into the air happily. "Now power up and fire both Hyper Beam and Solarbeam!" He quickly followed.

Claydol slowly lifted both arms, the canon-like protrusions that were its arms glowing brightly, one with a deep orange light and the other a bright silvery white.

Kenny gulped slightly, there was no way Prinplup could stand up after being hit by both extremely powerful beam attacks in quick succession, especially seeing as Solarbeam was a Grass Type attack and Prinplup as a Water Type Pokemon was weak to such attacks.

' _Gotta end this here,_ ' Kenny thought. His mind was a rapid blur as he tried to come up with a strategy to take out Claydol before it could fire its combined attacks, ' _No other choice! We'll have to use_ IT _and hope for the best!'_

He'd been working with Prinplup to perfect this attack for over a month now, actually nearing two months now.

"Finish it now Prinplup! Use Hydro Cannon!" Kenny commanded sharply, albeit rather reluctantly.

Prinplup was his starter Pokemon, and as partners trusted his judgement above all else. Holding both wings around its beak, a large sphere of glowing turquoise water filled with powerful energy began to condense and take form.

The energy flickered a few times, as if the energy within the attack was about to give out and lead the attack to failure.

' _C'mon, c'mon!_ ' Kenny's thoughts went.

Prinplup held strong though, and finally jumping up into the air Prinplup cocked its neck backwards along with its arms holding the Hydro Cannon attack in place before launching its neck forward and blasting the large sphere of energy, almost the same size of its body rocketing towards Claydol.

Claydol looked up at the rapidly enclosing attack and lifted both arms, ready to fire the attacks at a moments notice.

"Fuck!" Rolando cursed once more, "No time to wait for the attacks to charge fully, fire now Claydol!" He ordered desperately.

The Hydro Cannon was just a few fight away from Claydol when the Pokemon fired both the large orange beam of Hyper beam and the silvery white glowing beam that was Solarbeam.

The most powerful Water Pokemon attack met the strongest energy based attacks of the Grass Type Pokemon and Normal Type Pokemon.

It was hard to say which force won, because all three exploded powerfully in a rain of scalding hot energy that blasted straight into Claydol and sent it soaring flying across the hall where it impacted into one of the concrete walls and was cratered into it by the force of the explosion of energy.

The whole sequence of attacks lasted less than three seconds, and Prinplup nimbly landed on both feet panting and sweating harshly from the energy it expended to form and control the Hydro Cannon attack.

Up above, the clock stopped on 1:53 minutes and Rolando lost the rest of his points bar, the yellow being replaced completely with a void black.

Rolando's picture was knocked off the monitor and Kenny's face took up the entirety of the screen with a large banner declaring 'WINNER' above his picture.

Rolando sighed in defeat. Lifting his Pokeball, he returned Claydol back inside in a beam of red energy. Looking at the Pokeball, he gave it a fond smile, "Good job Claydol, I couldn't have asked for a better performance." He whispered to the Pokeball, "You take a nice long rest now."

Rolando looked up after stashing the Pokeball away and met Kenny's eyes, giving the younger Coordinator a nod of respect, before giving the crowd a short bow and then leaving the stage.

Kenny grinned at the exhausted form of Prinplup, "Well done Prinplup!" He congratulated, "Take a break, and rest up before our next battle." He told his starter Pokemon, returning it to its own Pokeball in a beam of red energy.

Marian took that as her cue and stepped back onto the stage, "And after an intense action filled battle, our winners of this battle are Kenny and Prinplup!"

The crowd once again roared loudly in applause, and Kenny gave a shaky smile along with a bow before swiftly following Rolando's lead and leaving the stage, intending on heading back towards the waiting room

* * *

Ash whistled in appreciation. ' _I'm impressed, learning Hydro Cannon before reaching the final evolution stage is quite the accomplishment._ '

Sure both Bulbasaur and Squirtle could use both Hydro Cannon and Frenzy Plant in their first evolution stages. But, both Pokemon had been with Ash for over four years and even before he caught them they were stronger than the average Pokemon of their species.

He was about to settle down to watch the next match, when he felt a familiar tug at the back of his mind.

' _He's back already?_ ' The amber eyed teen thought, ' _That was fast._ ' He concluded in his head.

Standing up, he gently opened his backpack and placed Pikachu within making sure to rest his partner comfortably on Ash's sleeping bag at the top of the pack.

Pausing before he shut the backpack, he reached into one of the side pockets and retrieved a device that looked remarkably like a watch, except the screen was quite a bit larger and had a light red trim as a border.

He strapped it around his left arm, right up beside his Pokétch. He ignored the curious looks he got from those sitting near him and deftly closed the backpack over before slipping it over his shoulder and began making his way out of the audience.

As he reached the stairs and began making his way up them, Ash looked at the device he had just strapped onto his arm.

It was aptly named an Xtranceiver. It was the Unova Regions answer to Johto's Pokegear and Hoenn's Pokenav.

But, it completely blew those older models of telephonic devices out of the water. The Xtranceiver was basically, a miniature video phone that could be attached to the owners arm and had a built in memory bank that saved specific peoples Xtranceiver, Pokegear, Pokenav and phone numbers. Not to mention, it could save the calls the user had for later uses, like, say the user had to review a conversation they once had.

Ash usually wasn't one to really care about popular new cell phones these days. But despite how expensive they were, he was glad Dawn had convinced him to buy one for each of them.

….Well, he was only supposed to buy his own and Dawn would buy her own with the winnings she'd made so far on her journey and the money she received for coming in second place at the Jubilife Contest. But he'd decided to just buy hers as well anyway.

After all, he'd been saving most of his money since the very beginning of his journey and with all the money he received from winning Gym battles, making it to the Elite levels of every Regional League he'd participated in, winning many contests and tournaments as well as defeating the entire Orange League Crew and Battle Frontiers... Suffice to say, Ash was pretty much loaded nowadays.

But still, even he winced at the prices of Xtranceivers. They were new in the market, and so they were still at their highest price and that was between 35,000 and 45,000 Pokédollars.

Considering that the Tm prices for the Hyper Beam and Giga Impact Tm's were between 5,500 and 6,500 Pokédollars, and that those were the most expensive Tm's... Yeah, Xtranceiver's were pretty damn expensive and so Ash was out a whole 70,000 Pokédollars.

Thankfully, he'd got both for 35,000 Pokédollars each because he was buying two.

Still, he was glad he listened to Dawn because they made having a rotation system with his Pokemon at the Oak Ranch all the easier. He could just call Professor Oak or Tracey at the lab and have them send his Pokemon to his Pokedex, and he could in turn use his Pokedex to send specific Pokemon back to the Oak Ranch.

Turning it on, he entered the saved numbers and scrolled down to the 'D' section. Selecting Dawn's name, he hit the button for call and awaited her picking up...

* * *

Dawn smiled brightly at Kenny as he met her in the waiting room, "That was amazing Kenny!" She exclaimed, "I can't believe you taught Prinplup how to use Hydro Cannon already!" She gushed, eyes sparkling, "Ash told me he wouldn't even help me teach Piplup how to use Hydro Pump until he either evolved into a Prinplup himself or showed Ash that he was strong enough and experienced enough to handle an attack of that caliber."

Kenny rubbed the back of his neck and laughed uncomfortably, "That's probably a good idea on Ash's part." He replied to his childhood friend, "I got a bit ahead of myself in teaching Prinplup Hydro Cannon and you saw he can't handle it yet, nor can he even control it properly but Prinplup is just way to stubborn and won't wait until he evolves into an Empoleon to master it and so continues to try and master it as he is." He further revealed.

Dawn gave a thoughtful 'hmm' as she answered, cradling her chin on a thumb and forefinger. "I don't think you really need to wait until your Pokemon is fully evolved." She revealed her own learned information, getting a curious look from Kenny, "Ash told me that he has a Squirtle that can use Hydro Cannon and a Bulbasaur that can use Frenzy Plant." The blue haired Coordinator continued.

A puzzled look came across Kenny's face for a moment, before clearing again as he snapped his fingers in realization, "Well Ash has been a trainer for 4 years hasn't he? And he started out his journey in Kanto right?" He asked Dawn.

Dawn nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, so?" She replied.

"So..." Kenny trailed off, "He probably caught those two years ago, back when he first travelled through Kanto, so even if they're not evolved they'll be very experienced regardless, and with Ash as their Trainer they're no doubt extremely powerful as well." The matador outfit wearing Coordinator concluded.

His reasoning made a contemplative look take form on the blue haired girls face. "If I remember right..." She trailed off, "That Bulbasaur and Squirtle were on his original team of six Pokemon along with his Pikachu, Pidgeot, Charizard and a Butterfree he released back into the wild." Dawn continued.

Despite knowing the majority of Ash's Pokemon, it was still hard to keep track of them all, and remember exactly when he caught them. Especially the ones she hadn't met yet and both Bulbasaur and Squirtle fell into that category. Sad as it was, because she was sure with how those two Pokemon's characters were described, they'd be a right laugh to have around.

Especially if the antics Squirtle got up to were true. Who ever heard of a Squirtle that led a gang of pranksters? And wore black shades to define itself as the leader of the 'Squirtle Squad'?

She had to hold back a snort of amusement just thinking of the Pokemon.

"That pretty much confirms my thoughts on how they know such powerful attacks despite being in their bottom evolution forms." Kenny replied, he gave 'hmmmm' of thought himself before he continued, "No doubt that Charizard of his knows how to use Blast Burn as well." The red headed Coordinator said.

"Yep, it does!" Dawn chirped cheerfully in reply.

They were interrupted by Dawn's Xtranceiver. The device's ring-tone chimed off rather loudly, an upbeat fast paced piece of music began...

" _HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!Nakanaka tegowa aite mo Mazumazu moechau batoru (honto?)Furafura yoreyore daipinchi Kimero aian teeru de sumairingu (Everything is Good!) OH! Mezameru pawaa (Never Give Up!) Saa tachiagare oikaze ni notte.._ "

" _HA HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Even against a super strong opponent. The battle burns more and more_ _(_ _really?). Worn out and unsteady, I'm in a mega pinch. Decide! Use iron tail and then we're smiling_..."

" _Shakariki narakiri harikiri Minna de susumou eburidei Mori mo kawa mo yama mo koeru Kono kanji saikou! (saikoo!) Yuujou aijou konjou Shinka shiteru yo eburidei Ii ne ii ne ii ne iku ze..._ "

" _(Everything is Good!) OH! A Hidden Power (Never Give Up!). C'mon! Stand up and ride on_ _t_ _he tailwind Desperately, Role Play, Hustle Let's move forward everyday Through forests, rivers, mountains These feelings are the best! (The best~!) Friendship, love, willpower They're evolving every day Isn't that nice? Isn't that nice? Isn't that nice? Let's go!_..."

" _Bokura guddo – konbineeshon Bacchiri komyunikeeshon Itsudatte hai – tenshon WOW WO Sha rara...dakara daijoubu_..." _  
_

" _We're a_ _g_ _ood combination With perfect communication Always in high tension WOW WO sha la la...so we're fine!_..."

Dawn allowed it to play out a few of the verses, it was her favourite song nowadays after all.

Kenny snickered into his hand, "Was that 'The Greatest Everyday'?" He questioned with a snort, remembering how when the song had came out just a month or so before he left on his Pokemon Journey, Dawn had been basically enthralled by the music and made it her all time favourite.

Dawn blushed in embarrassment, she hastily accepted the call and smothered her blush with a bright grin when her boyfriend's face appeared on the video screen.

Although, by the looks of the tree's around him he must have been outside..

"Hey!" She greeted. Kenny curious to who called her, leaned over her shoulder and gave a grin as he noticed Ash.

"Yo Ash! How was that for a battle out there? Sorry that I basically stole a tactic you used on me earlier today though." Kenny greeted, as well as apologized in the same sentence.

Ash on the screen sat down on a tree stump and waved it off, " _ **Hey**_ _._ " He greeted his girlfriend and new...friend? He and Kenny did get on quite well so he supposed they were quite friendly. "' _ **No need to worry**_ '." He quoted his girlfriend with a grin. Earning a pout from said girlfriend and an amused snicker from the boy next to her, " _ **I made my battle style by combining a bunch of different styles I'd seen implemented against me during my journey, so it would be a bit hypocritical of me to rage at you for imitating mine in any way**_." The ranger finished.

Ash paused for a moment before he continued to speak, " _ **That was some great battling out there you two**_." He told them, before pressing on, " _ **I was particularly impressed with how that Focus Blast adaption you made Dawn, I'll have to remember that one. As well as that Hydro Cannon, I'm definitely impressed Prinplup has come so far in learning such a powerful technique just a few months into your own journey**_."

Dawn smiled brightly at his praise, where as Kenny blushed slightly and ducked his head, "Oh shucks..." He mumbled slightly embarrassed yet pleased with the praise. He hadn't met many renown people on his journey, actually he'd met none.

He'd done some research into Ash after meeting him. He had found out that he was one of the prides of the Kanto Region only over-shadowed by the likes of the renown and famous Professor Oak, the Kanto Elite Four and Lance Wataru the Kanto Regional Champion and master of Dragon Type Pokemon.

It was as humbling as it was awe-inspiring to meet such a famous and well along Trainer. The news that he was the youngest Pokemon Ranger in recorded history spread like wildifre through Kanto and along with it interesting tidbits had been revealed about Ash all over the internet and varied from Region to Region.

From his victory over the Orange Crew. Then to his achievement of being the first ever to conquer the Battle Frontier, renown for its toughness and the Elite level of every Frontier Brain. Along with those pieces of information, lesser well known tidbit were soon revealed. How it was thanks to him that Lance Wataru had captured his rare coloured Red Gyarados, which was now one of his most powerful battlers. How he'd foiled the plans of Team Rocket time and time again, to how he'd stopped Team Magma and Team Aqua from getting control over the Legendary Pokemon Groudon and Kyogre.

It was soon known that he'd defeated three Legendary Pokemon in one on one battles. His Charizard defeating an Articuno. His Sceptile taking down a Deoxys and finally his starter Pokemon, Pikachu defeating Brandon of the Battle Pyramid's Regice.

And even some lesser known achievements that nobody had any idea he had involvement with. From saving the world from being plunged into a never ending storm thanks to a mad collector going by the name of 'Laurence The Third' when he captured all three of the Kanto Legendary bird Pokemon in an attempt to draw out Lugia. How he'd saved a Celebi from a famous Team Rocket Mercenary known as 'The Iron Masked Marauder' who was known for his ruthless cunning and 'do anything' to win attitude.

It was even known that his Pikachu had, 2 years ago, almost defeated Agatha the strongest of the Kanto Elite Four's strongest Pokemon, her Gengar in a one on one battle.

And his Pikachu had supposedly grown in leaps and bounds since then, according to Dawn anyway. Man was he ever glad when that Pikachu denied his request to battle it with Prinplup, he would have been lucky if Prinplup would have recovered within a month never mind in time for the contest he was currently competing in.

Yes... That was a very good turn of events for him, even if he still lost and rather badly at that.

He was broken from his private thoughts by Dawn speaking up once again, "So why are you outside amongst what looks to be like some kind of forest instead of waiting for the next matches?" She asked quizzically.

Kenny was also intrigued to his answer, so leaned in further and awaited Ash's explanation.

Ash waved the question off rather easily, " _ **I'm meeting up with an acquaintance of mine, he says he has something that might interest me, a deal of some sort with some rare evolution stones I think...**_ " As he finished, he look pointedly at Dawn and then at his neck where Kenny could see some type of silver chain like necklace disappearing into his shirt.

"Oh..." Dawn breathed out in realization. ' _Mewtwo must be back and wanting to talk to Ash_.' The bluenette thought.

" _ **Don't worry though, I'll definitely be back in time to see both of you compete against each other in the finals**_." The amber eyed teen pressed on.

While Dawn beamed at the indirect praise, Kenny blinked rather confusedly at it. "How do you know we won't be put out by our opponents?" He inquired of Ash questioningly.

Ash chuckled amusedly before he replied, " _ **I'm fairly certain you're both above your opponents in skill and that your Pokemon are much stronger than theirs, hell I'd be surprised if you two didn't make it to the finals**_..."He started confidently, but trailed off rather suddenly and they both just heard him mutter, " _ **I'd be pretty damn annoyed as well seeing as I put 7,500**_ _ **Poké**_ _ **dollars**_ _ **on each of you making it to the finals at 10-1 odds for Kenny and 15-1 odds for Dawn**_..."

"You're gambling on us!?" Dawn burst out angrily.

" _ **Hehehe**_..." Ash laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. " _ **Hey these Xtranceivers were freaking expensive, and at those rates on you guys making it to the finals I'd make all my money**_ _ **back and then some, it was a bloody sell and a half to bet on you guys at those rates**_..."

Dawn pouted at him petulantly, accepting his reasoning but still rather miffed about him betting on her and Kenny without asking at least, "And what if we didn't make it to the finals?" She questioned her boyfriend.

Ash gave her a deadpan stare, " _ **I would have lost 15,000**_ _ **Poké**_ _ **dollars**_ _ **and then made that back when I defeated the next Gym Leader I challenged for a badge**_." He answered promptly.

Dawn let out an "Oooh!" Of understanding. Despite the bias many Coordinators felt at it. Defeating a Gym Leader was known to be even harder than winning a contest. Gym Leaders were tested by the Pokemon League committee, and their battle prowess was tested by the Elite Four. If they were deemed capable of battling at the needed level to test challengers, and had sufficient experience and maturity to run a Gym, then said Leader would be granted with a Badge design of their choice as well as a specialized Typing.

Although generally, the typing didn't really matter as long as any Pokemon used could use attacks and techniques of the specific Typing.

For instance, if it was a Gym that specialized in Grass Type Pokemon. Her boyfriend Ash could use a team of three consisting of his Bayleef, his Turtwig and his Haunter. Because despite not being a Grass Type Pokemon, Ash's Haunter could still use the technique 'Energy Ball' which was a Grass Type Pokemon attack.

Dawn groaned internally, it made her head hurt just thinking about the many rules and regulations that went into Pokemon Gym's and the Pokemon League Challenge.

...And her boyfriend Ash had literally made her listen to him lecture on about such things for like three hours in succession, all the while simultaneously helping her train her Pokemon.

Suffice to say, she had no desire to repeat such a boring and long winded occurrence ever again. Her boyfriend was just too damn passionate sometimes when it came to Pokemon and the Pokemon League Challenge.

" _ **So, I'll be back to watch you guys in the finals in roughly 30 minutes**_." Ash told them. That should be enough time to make it back. Five minutes per battle, and in counting their was two battles left of this round of the Contest and then the four Semi-finalists would battle it out to decide the two that would move onto the finals. So that would be twenty minutes all in from the four battles and ten minutes for the break periods between each round.

" _ **Later**_." Ash continued, giving them both a wave. He finished off by giving Dawn a wink and then the screen went completely blank.

Kenny decided to break the rather awkward silence that Ash left he and Dawn in. "So Dee-Dee... That boyfriend of yours is quite the character... eh?" He said, and rather lamely at that what with the half-hearted wave he tossed her.

Dawn looked at him incredulously for a few moments, before she burst into a loud uproarious laughter. She kept laughing loudly for near enough an entire minute before calming down, to wipe tears of amusement from her eyes and stop the random spasms that jolted her body because of the many giggles she tried to contain, "... Oh Kenny... you're such a goof!" She managed to force out, before once again bursting into another fit of loud uproarious laughter.

Kenny pouted at her, annoyed. She could at least give him the benefit of the doubt! He didn't see _her_ trying to break the awkward silence between them after Ash hung up.

"Hmph!" He grunted, unamused by her amusement. Turning he walked over to an empty seat a few feet away and began to watch the next battle of this round in the contest on the TV screen. Attempting to ignore Dawn's hearty chuckles all the while.

… It was a very hard thing to do when she was laughing so loudly, especially with the odd looks she kept getting from the other two occupants of the room... Although the bluenette deftly ignored them.

Kenny wisely decided to just act as if he had no idea who she was. Forget his slight crush on the girl, she was bloody well crazy! Ash could freaking have her all he wanted! Kenny would be satisfied to find a nice, pretty and normal girl to date. Dawn, despite being his childhood friend and crush, was obviously way too high maintenance.

* * *

Ending his call to Dawn and Kenny, Ash reclined on the tree stump gently making sure to not aggravate his wounds.

"Alright, I'm alone now!" Ash called out loudly into the empty clearing he was currently positioned inside. "You can show yourself now."

The clearing around him was eerily silent for a moment, before the sound of rushing wind met Ash's ears and Mewtwo flickered into view in front of him.

"So, what's so interesting that it couldn't wait until the Contest was finished?" Ash inquired, sitting up a litlle higher with a wince. He rubbed his side gently, trying to massage away the sting of his injuries.

Mewtwo ignored his inquiry, " _You're injured?_ " It was a statement rather than a question.

Ash winced slightly once again, deeming the statement as something he should expand upon for the better of Mewtwo's inquisitive nature. "Yeah, I was spending time with Chimchar alone for the day a couple of days ago and we ended up getting ambushed by bunch of Zangoose." Ash replied to the Legendary Pokemon under his ownership. "You can take a look at my memory of the event if you want." He continued.

Mewtwo marvelled slightly at Ash's genuine display of trust. Opening up your mind to a Psychic Pokemon was considered to be the biggest show of trust a Trainer could show in their Pokemon. Because opening up your mind to a Psychic allowed them access to your every thought, feeling and memory. From every dirty fantasy, to a persons highest expectations and most astounding dreams.

… Ash had offered Mewtwo the same privilege long ago, even before Ash had officially captured the Legendary Psychic Pokemon.

" _Very well._ " Mewtwo replied in kind, his eyes glowed a deep blue, swelling with his inner well of power, but before he delved into his Trainer's memories Metwo began to glow a light pink as his form was encased in a shroud of pink energy, " _But, as I read your memories to review the event that left you injured, I shall use the technique known as Heal Pulse to heal your wounds._ " That now said, Mewtwo allowed his consciousness to enter the confines of Ash's mind, all the while leaving his body on auto-pilot. His mind was so advanced he could manipulate his body with it even when it was not within the confines of said body.

Ash sighed in relief and part pleasure as the pink energy pulsed outwards from Mewtwo and washed over him. A sense of euphoria overcame Ash, and it took all of the young Pokemon Rangers self control not to moan out loud from the pleasure he felt as his wounds slowly but surely mended. New fresh skin growing over the scabbed off gashes that once rushed with blood, and bruises slowly softened in colour, turning from a dark purple, to a light violet fading into an almost unseen blue that disappeared altogether just a few moments later.

Finally, when the pink energy died down Ash gave a relieved sigh and stood up. The teen stretched his body nimbly, sighing once again in satisfaction as he felt stiff bones that were held tight together over the past few days pop in places.

"Arceus I love that technique." Ash said out loud, almost reverently.

He heard an amused chuckle from Mewtwo as the Psychic Pokemon finished reviewing his memories. " _I'd think so, what with how many times you've been injured and me healing you and relieving you of said injuries_."

Ash gave the Legendary Pokemon a shrug and grin in response, accepting what was said for the truth. It was in fact true after all.

It still rattled him at how oblivious his friends were when they didn't notice that injuries he'd received throughout their journeys mysteriously disappeared.

Sheesh, talk about 'looking underneath the underneath'.

" _I see that you've improved greatly in your fighting ability, although you were still clearly far outclassed by those three Zangoose_." Mewtwo stated.

"Meh," Ash waved him off, "Next time something like that happens, I'll be much better prepared and there won't be a terrified and vulnerable target for my opponents to take advantage of, I promise you that." He pressed on.

Ash pushed on further before Mewtwo could get a word in edge wise, "Now quit with the stalling and tell me what you wanted me to meet you somewhere secluded for." He ordered sharply. He wasn't one for mind games all that often, and right now he definitely wasn't in the mood for cryptic bullshit.

Mewtwo Sighed, "... _Very well_..." The clone of Mew relented, " _It has started_..."

Those three words were enough for Ash to get the general gist of what was going on. "Already?!" He questioned his Pokemon incredulously, receiving a nod of confirmation in reply. "Fuck!" Ash cursed.

Ash growled angrily, swiping his hand through the air.

Pausing, he took a deep breath and pinched his nose to stem his rage. The honorary Pokemon Ranger mentally counted backwards from ten.

 _'10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0..._ '

Once he was done, he returned his attention back to Mewtwo, "Have you found out anything else?" He inquired.

Mewtwo nodded in the positive, " _I have found a few things out, mainly that the name of the criminal syndicate of this Region goes by the name of Team Galactic and they plan to use the Legendary Emotion Trio Mespirit, Uxie and Azelf in an attempt to control both Dialga and Palkia in order to use both of their powers over space and time to create an entirely new world_..."

Ash cursed once again, "Arceus above! Fucking Shit! Mother-fuckin' Arse Munchin' Queer Bastards!" He raged up and down the clearing angrily.

"Don't you just fuckin' miss Giovanni and his whole 'I just want to rule the world' gig?" He questioned Mewtwo rhetorically. He didn't even allow the Legendary Pokemon to answer his sarcastic comment, "Why can't any of the crazies I run into these day be _less_ insane? What kind of moronic doped up cock-jockies come up with these plans! Honestly?!" Storming over to a nearby adjacent tree, Ash proceeded to lay his forehead against it and breathe in deeply.

Mewtwo, off to the side observing him calmly, had been joined by Pikachu watching Ash's ranting in amusement. The small Electric Type Pokemon had been awakened from his comfortable slumber by Ash's loud and angry voice.

Before the conversation could go any further, Mewtwo decided to helpfully point out, " _By my calculations, you only have another thee minutes and thirty-seven seconds before the finals of that Contest you were watching are set to commence_."

Ash jolted away from the tree with another curse barrage of curses, some of the words enough to make a sailor. Turning on his heel, he swiftly lifted the Pokeball up from around his neck and returned Mewtwo in a beam of red energy, "We'll continue this little chat later, but for now I've gotta go watch Dawn and Kenny battle it out for that Contest Ribbon." He told the Pokeball. He ignored the amused chuckle he felt in his mind coming from Mewtwo.

He gave the snickering Pikachu a volatile glare before walking over to his backpack that he'd set down beside the tree stump he'd sat on earlier. Opening the flap, he pointed to the insides of the bag and then at Pikachu, and then back again, "Right you! Back In there and go back to sleeping like the lazy ass you are nowadays I need to high tail it back to the Contest Hall." He ordered his partner.

Pikachu raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the order but followed through on it regardless. Padding over to Ash, the small yellow rodent easily jumped right into the confines of the bag and snuggled back into Ash's comfortable and soft sleeping bag.

Hey! He would much rather sleep than watch some boring ass battles between Pokemon he could defeat in the blink of an eye. At the moment, the Pokemon competing, even Dawn and Kenny's were so far beneath his level that he didn't even deem it sufficient to watch their battles.

… After all, if anything of interest truly happened his partner Ash would either wake him up to view it live or fill him in on it later when he was actually awake and coherent enough to understand.

Ash felt his eyebrow twitch as Pikachu jumped inside the bag to go to sleep without a moments hesitation. Truly his partner was the epitome of laziness these days.

Pushing that to the back of his mind, Ash shut the flap over, securing the bag over his shoulders next and then took off sprinting towards the Contest Hall.

...He had to pick up his winnings as well as watch the finals between Dawn and Kenny.

* * *

Four minutes later, a heavily breathing and sweating Ash collapsed back into his chair in the shadowed audience above the battle stage. Despite his lungs burning in his chest, Ash couldn't keep the brilliantly smug grin from his face.

….He was now 187,500 Pokédollars richer than he was when the Contest started earlier that day. Which by every definition was cause for jubilation and celebration.

Smug grin still in place, Ash settled down to watch both Dawn and Kenny as they reached their positions on the battle stage.

* * *

"And now..." Marian trailed off to build suspense. She waved her arms in the direction of both Dawn and Kenny from her position just to the side of the battle field and standing beside the judge's desk. "Without further adieu, let the final match between both Dawn and Kenny from Twinleaf Town begin!"

Dawn gave Kenny a confident smirk as she released her Pokemon, "Ursaring, Spotlight!" She declared. Ursaring was released from inside the confines of his Pokeball in a massive flash of lightning that roared up high into the air, before dispersing as Ursaring appeared from within the lightning and slashed it in half with his powerful claws.

Kenny though, replied in kind with a confident smirk of his own. "Sorry to say Dee-Dee, but I'm the one claiming this victory and the Floaroma Town Ribbon along with it." He told her, punctuating the statement by releasing his own Pokemon. "Prinplup, let's hit it!" The red headed Twinleaf native called out.

Prinplup burst out from inside its Pokeball riding a wave of glistening golden stars. They died down after a moment and allowed Prinplup to land deftly upon its feet, both arms/wings crossed as the penguin Pokemon met Usaring's challenging glare with its own.

"Alright on, we'll start straight off in the offensive!" Kenny declared. Pointed his index finger in Ursaring's direction, Kenny ordered, "Prinplup, hit it with Bubblebeam!"

Opening its beak, Prinplup fired a multitude of large turquoise bubbles of energy rapidly towards Ursaring.

Dawn countered quickly though, with a swift order of her own. "Don't back down, plough straight through that barrage of bubbles with Hyper Beam!" The bluenette Coordinator commanded.

Ursaring reared back his head, a sphere of orange energy glowing ominously in front of his open mouth before he jerked his head forward and launched a large orange beam of destructive energy flying towards the Bubblebeam, ready to take it head on.

The Hyper Beam cut a large swathe through the glowing bubbles of energy and continued undeterred on its true path towards Prinplup. Albeit a bit slower and less vibrant in colour.

Up above, Kenny's bar of points lost almost a sixth of its total amount due to Dawn's overwhelming counter towards his first attack.

"Repel it with Drill Peck!" Kenny shot back with a counter of his own.

Jumping into a rapid side spin, Prinplup shot off towards the Hyper Beam with both crown and beak glowing a bright silvery white.

Because the orange beam of destructive energy had lost some of its potency when it ploughed through Prinplup's earlier Bubblebeam attack, Prinplup easily met the blast of energy head on and drilled straight through it sending sparkles of orange energy flickering through the air.

And just like the Hyper Beam it had just drilled through. Prinplup continued to roar through the air rapidly towards its own true target, Ursaring.

"Take the hit and then catch it!" Dawn ordered her Pokemon, receiving a nod of understanding.

Ursaring stood strong and allowed Prinplup to crash straight into him, Drill Peck and all. Ursaring roared loudly in pain as Prinplup's beak pierced his shoulder, but held strong despite the pain and wrapped his powerful muscular furred arms Prinplup in a true to word 'Bear Hug'.

"Shit!" Kenny cursed, realizing he'd been had.

"Take it down now with one more Hyper Beam!" Dawn commanded quickly.

Ursaring opened his gaping maw and revealed another deadly orange orb of energy that began to condense and become more powerful with each passing moment.

Just before the Hyper Beam was fired though, Kenny managed one last desperate act, "Blunt the damage with Flash Cannon!" He shouted desperately towards his starter Pokemon.

Prinplup obeyed without hesitation and within a moments notice its beak glowed a bright silvery white before it opened it and unleashed a pale silvery blue beam of energy point blank at Ursaring's face, just as said Normal Type Pokemon unleashed his Hyper Beam.

Both energy beam attacks met head on and exploded violently, flinging both Pokemon rolling across the battle field on opposite sides of each other. Only separated by a few feet at most.

Ursaring grinned challengingly and roared his might proudly over the noise of the cheering crowd. Despite having large amounts of his fur singed from the heat of the explosion of attacks, and a large patch of fur matted and dyed red with his blood, he stood strong and was ready to continue at a moments notice. If anything the powerful bear Pokemon was even more excited to continue battling than ever, despite it's injuries that should have hampered it at least a little.

The same though, could not be said for Prinplup. The penguin Pokemon was situated on one knee, panting harshly. One of its eyes was swollen shut thanks to a large teeming purple bruise that swelled the eyelid up fatter than normal. The Water Type Pokemon's body was covered in burned feathers and a few gashes here and there that dyed the feathers an off purple colour thanks to it mixing in with its blue coloured feathers.

Up above, both Coordinator's points dropped dramatically from the damage both Pokemon had taken. Dawn's bar dropped to exactly half where as Kenny's dropped to a little under a quarter of the total points left.

Kenny looked at his partner in dismay. There was no way he could win this the way he was now. Kenny lifted Prinplup's pokeball and was about to return his starter Pokemon and forfeit the match, but was stopped in his tracks when Prinplup turned his remaining eye towards Kenny and gave his Trainer a confident nod.

...And then Prinplup erupted into a truly awe inspiring pillar of silver light. From within the light, Prinplup began to expand in size.

It was evolving, and Kenny along with the majority of the crowd was in to much of a stupefied awe to react any further.

Dawn though, she remembered what happened during her first ever official battle with Nando, and how she'd become complacent and allowed the Budew after evolving into Roselia to deftly defeat her Buneary.

' _When Pinplup reaches its fully evolved form, Empoleon. It changes from a primarily Water Type Pokemon to a Dual Water and Steel Type Pokemon_.' The blue haired Coordinator remembered with a grin.

"Focus Blast!" Dawn commanded quickly.

Ursaring thankfully was not stupefied or in awe of Prinplup's evolution - it was in fact rather annoyed at the showy display interrupting their battle actually - into an Empoleon and punched both palms together before pulling them apart to reveal a large turquoise-green energy of power swelling between his claws.

Punching both palms outwards towards Prinplup/Empoleon. Ursaring unleashed the attack and sent it rocketing through the air towards the evolving Pokemon.

When the sphere of Fighting Type energy was within a few metres of the evolving Pokemon. The bright silvery tower of energy died down to reveal Prinplup's new form as an Empoleon.

Prinplup, now Empoleon, was a large penguin-like Pokémon. The newly evolved Pokemon's entire colour scheme had changed, where as in its previous forms it was mostly of normal blue and light blue colouring, now it was a prominently navy-blue coloured Pokemon. The Penguin Pokemon's feet actually appeared to have webbing on them, its wings were tipped with blue metal and had three golden claws sticking out at the bottom. Empoleon had a short, blue, metal tail sticking out of its back and fin that was on the front of its body and extended to where its chin would be then split to form a sort of collar. There was a lace-like pattern of white coloration on its front, and it had two gold-coloured spots on its upper-back. Empoleon's most prominent feature was the three-horned trident-like crest that extended from its beak.

If Dawn remembered right from what Ash had told her about the final evolution of her Prinplup, the larger the crest an Empoleon had on its beak the more powerful or experienced they were, and usually the one with the largest 'horns' would lead the school of other Empoleon, as well as Prinplup and Piplup.

Not that the evolution done Empoleon any good though. In fact, when it came out of its evolution the newly evolved Pokemon was in an even worse spot than before, because it had no time to dodge the large glowing turquoise-green sphere of energy that ploughed straight into its face and exploded powerfully on impact.

The Fighting Type attack dealt a massive amount of damage, and despite its evolution. Empoleon just couldn't stay standing when the damage it received from the Focus Blast was added on to the injuries it had sustained from Ursaring, as well as the exhaustion it felt from its earlier battles.

And so, Empoleon was promptly blasted off of its feet and sent rolling into a tumbled heap of unconscious limbs in front of Kenny.

"Aaaand there you have it folks! Our winner of the Floaroam Town Ribbon is Dawn from Twinleaf Town!" Marian declared.

Dawn stood stock still for a moment, completely shocked. She had actually won an official Contest!

Her shock was broken a moment later when a massive grin exploded across her face. "We won! We Won! We Won!" Dawn shouted happily, jumping on the spot giddily. Rushing forward, she leaped up onto a surprised Ursaring and wrapped her arms around his neck holding the large Pokemon in a tight hug. Ursaring accepted the hug and returned it, happily roaring to go along with Dawn's cheering that 'they won'. Its gleeful jumps were less cute than Dawn's as it tried to emulate her, because they actually shook the raised platform they were standing on.

Kenny ignored most of the festivities and rushed over to his fallen Pokemon, leaning down he cradled Empoleon's head gently, "I'm sorry Empoleon, I just wasn't strong enough as a Trainer to help you take the win." He apologized sadly, his head bowed in shame.

He was therefore surprised when his face was lifted up to meet Empoleon's by one of the newly evolved Water Type Pokemon's fins. "Em..Pol..eon!" His starter Pokemon declared with a confident raise of its fin.

Kenny grinned, slightly teary at the gesture. "Yeah, next time we'll definitely take the win." Lifting up Empoleon's Pokeball, he returned the exhausted Pokemon back within the confines of the ball in a beam of red energy. "You take a nice long rest for now though, you deserve it." He whispered to the Pokeball softly.

Standing up, he grinned as he looked towards Dawn being spun around by a happily roaring Ursaring in celebration.

"Next time, definitely." He whispered. Longing slightly to feel that sense of victory Dawn was no doubt feeling at this very moment.

* * *

Up above in the audience, Ash grinned ruefully. ' _Well done done, you've definitely come a long way since you started Dawn, and to think that was only just a little over a month ago_." The teen thought fondly, clapping all the while along with the crowd. Sticking his thumb and index finger in his mouth, Ash gave an extremely loud whistle that echoed loudly along with the roaring in applause crowd.

* * *

Within a few minutes, the top eight Coordinator's were situated on the field, with the very best, Dawn, standing atop a few steps with both Kabutops and Ursaring standing by her sides, looking almost like imposing bodyguards protecting a beautiful princess from harm.

Up above the stage, the large screen broadcast Dawn's picture proudly with a large banner declaring 'WINNER' above her picture.

"And now, Mr. Contesta will present the prestigious Floaroma Town Ribbon to our winning Coordinator, Dawn!" Marian declared loudly into her microphone, to the excitement of the audience who were once again roaring in applause.

"Congratulations." Mr. Contesta praised Dawn, as he presented the orange and white colored ribbon that was sitting on a blue velvet cushion to the blue haired girl. "I understand this is your first Ribbon right?" The red tuxedo jacket wearing man inquired.

"Right." Dawn replied softly, still trying to control the thundering of her heart within her breast. It was making her jittery, and extremely hard to control herself.

"We're expecting great things from you in the future." Mr. Contesta told her honestly, a smile tugging at his own lips.

"Thank you so much!" Dawn replied happily as she accepted the ribbon.

As Mr. Contesta stepped back from her, Dawn grinned deliriously and threw her arm into the air above her head, brandishing the Floaroma Town Ribbon proudly and showing it off to the crowd, who roared even louder in response to Dawn's celebration.

"No need to worry now, because the Floaroma Town Ribbon is all mine!" She declared loudly.

"And that Ladies and Gentlemen..." Marian began, "This has brought us to the end of this years flowery and fragrant Floaroma Town Pokemon Contest, but don't forget there is many more exciting events in this year's calender to come!" She continued to a massive applause and barrage of cheering from the audience filling the seats.

* * *

Later that very day, as the sun began to set and bathed Floaroma Town in a beautiful orange glaze. Ash, Dawn and Kenny stood at an empty street.

"So where are you guys headed now?" Kenny asked.

Ash gave a grin as he answered, "We're heading on towards the Eterna Forest and from there, to Eterna City and my next Gym Battle." The raven haired ranger replied.

"You're welcome to come with!" Dawn piped in, getting a nod of agreement from her boyfriend.

Kenny though, waved them off. "Nah I don't wanna get in the way of you guys doing coupley stuff." He replied with his own grin, "And besides," He continued, "I caught a Machoke on my way here and want to head over to the mountains located beside Oreburgh City to do some intense training."

"...Well Okay.." Dawn conceded with a pout, earning a chuckle from Kenny.

"Call us if you need us, yeah?" Ash told him, "I've got some pretty fast Flying Pokemon so if you ever need us we can get to you to lend a hand pretty quickly."

' _Not to mention Mewtwo could just Teleport us to him, if he ever actually needs us_.' Dawn thought with a giggle.

"Alright, I will then, thanks for the offer." Kenny replied cheerfully. He tossed them both a wave and began walking backwards away from then, "Later Ash," He said with a nod in Ash's direction, before turning to Dawn and giving a mischievous grin, "Dee-Dee!" He teased in amusement, before promptly turning on his heel and running off in the opposite direction of them.

"KENNY YOU ARE SO DEAD NEXT TIME I SEE YOU!" The blue haired girl declared angrily, before pouting petulantly when he was to far to hear or respond to her anger filled shout.

Ash chuckled at both his new friend and girlfriends antics. Wrapping his arm around Dawn's shoulder, he brought her head down to rest on his own shoulder, "Ready to go?" He questioned his girlfriend, giving her a small smile.

"Yup!" Dawn chirped cheerfully, standing on her tiptoes she quickly engaged Ash in a short but passionate kiss before pulling back and resting her head once again on his shoulder.

And together, they walked off into the sunset towards Eterna Forest, the first step of their journey towards Ash's next Gym Battle.


	13. Chapter 13

Eterna Forest wasn't a long distance from Floaroma Town. On average, the journey from the town to the forest took two to three days on foot.

Ash breathed in deeply, enjoying the scent the fresh air as it filled his lungs. He and Dawn were travelling at a moderate pace, cutting upstream on the banks of a river that according to their Pokétch was in fact a short cut on the way towards Eterna Forest.

Pikachu, as usual these days, was snoozing away comfortably inside the confines of Ash's backpack. And surprisingly, Piplup had joined Pikachu inside to snuggle into the comfortable sleeping bag and follow Pikach's lead.

Lately, Piplup had begun to look up to Pikachu in a sort of fusion between hero worship, learning of sorts from a role model and finally with an almost brotherly affection.

…Hopefully Piplup wouldn't pick up any of Pikachu's other bad habits, like the small Electric Type Pokemon's tendency to act like some kind of ketchup junkie. He could only imagine the kind of scolding Dawn would give him if Piplup got turned into a Ketchup addict... Not to mention she may once again rescind his boyfriendly privileges for a set time as punishment - not a fun thought at all.

Turning his head, Ash switched his attention to his girlfriend. Dawn herself was currently lost in her own little word. The blue haired girl was peering intently around every area they passed through, hoping to spot any potential Pokemon to capture

According to the information that came from her own mouth. Dawn wanted to capture a few more Pokemon that were of the Grass, Electric, Flying, Bug and quite a few other Types so she could confidently state that she had a varied set of Pokemon that could, hopefully, in theory, respond to any type of situation and gain the advantage.

Ash sighed internally. He was pretty damn bored. And, with nothing keeping his attention occupied his mind drifted back to his recent problem.

Team Galactic.

Despite having found out the basics of their plans thanks to Mewtwo, Ash was still very worried. It was too risky for Mewtwo to go after the higher ranked personnel of the criminal syndicate, so he had very little to base his future plans on.

It was the same with every criminal syndicate he'd heard of so far. Any Team Rocket flunkie could tell you how they planned to capture or steal every rare, powerful or valuable and use said Pokemon to take over the entire world. But flunkies would never have known about Giovanni's creating of Mewtwo, and other deadly classified operations such as the Dark Ball used by the Iron Masked Marauder to capture Celebi, change the small time pixie Pokemon into a cold emotional monster that was completely subservient to Team Rocket and if not for the aid of Suicine the Legendary North Wind Pokemon, then there was no way he could have saved Celebi from The Iron Masked Marauder's grasp and from being used as a weapon of mass destruction that would have in the end needed to be killed. Possibly by another Legendary Pokemon, which may actually throw the world into disarray.

It was the exact same with Team Magma and Team Aqua. Sure the flunkies knew that they were out to capture Groudon and Kyogre. But they had no idea Maxie the leader of Team Magma planned to use Groudon's powers to dry up the ocean, or that Archie of Team Aqua planned to sink everything into the depths of the ocean with the power of Kyogre.

They just weren't high up enough on the food chain to have such information revealed to them.

So, he knew what Team Galactic wanted to achieve overall. But he had no idea how they were going to go about it and without that knowledge there was no way he could effectively plan a counter attack against them.

The only sure fire thing he could do now was keep the Ranger HQ updated on his findings on the situation.

…At least until he ran into one of the higher ranked members of Team Galactic himself. He wasn't usually one to resort to violence, but if it kept his friends, his mother and Dawn safe he'd take down the high ranking member and beat them within an inch of their lives to get the information he needed.

That was a silent promise, that we was resolute to go through with if he had to resort to such actions.

Drastic times called for drastic measures after all. And a bunch of psychopaths hell bent on capturing two Pokemon of Legend that governed over both Time and Space was definitely a drastic situation.

Shaking his head, the Pokemon Ranger rid himself of such gloomy thoughts, ' _For now, I'll deal with things as they come, and hopefully along the way I'll think up a plan of action_.' Was his last thoughts on the matter, before he banished the topic to the back of his mind once again.

Looking up, a moment later Ash grinned when he saw what he recognized as a flock of Swablu and Altaria flying overhead. A Pokemon species that were generally quite powerful because of Altaria's dual typing of both Flying and Dragon.

Should he tell her? Catering to more than six Pokemon was actually quite hard. The only reason he was good at it was because he learned from Brock, who basically took care of all of Ash's Pokemon, his own Pokemon, Misty's Pokemon and May's Pokemon while they travelled together.

… Still, better for Dawn to learn early on the difficulty of paying all your Pokemon equal attention, as well as training them and taking care of them. He couldn't hold her hand forever. He could be her pillar, he could hold her up, but in the end she would still have to take the lead herself if she ever wanted to become a great Pokemon Trainer as well as Coordinator.

"Dawn!" He spoke up, catching his girlfriend's attention.

"Yeah, Ash?" His sapphire eyed girlfriend replied, turning to him quizzically.

Ash met Dawn's gaze and gave her a grin, "Check it out," He told her, pointing up into the air towards the flock of Pokemon flying overhead, "you were looking for a Flying Type Pokemon right?" He asked her, "Well there's your chance, Altaria are pretty good Pokemon." The raven haired teen pressed on further.

Dawn followed the direction his hand was pointing in and gasped as she saw the flock of Bird Pokemon.

There was quite a few of them. She couldn't quite count the number of Swablu, but she'd estimate there was at least fifty of the small Flying Types.

And as for the Altaria, there were three on each side of the flock of Swablu, with one at the very front of the flock obviously leading it and one at the rear end of the flock, for purposes she wasn't quite sure of.

She quickly retrieved her pink Pokedex from the side pocket in her yellow backpack and aimed it upwards, first scanning the Swablu, and then the Altaria.

" _Swablu, the Cotton Bird Pokémon. Swablu loves cleanliness and is quick to wipe off any unclean surface with its cotton-like wings._ " There was no specific gender or move pool listed because, despite being wild Dawn had scanned the entire flock of Swablu with her Pokedex, instead of one individual Swablu.

The Swablu species of Pokemon were primarily round, blue parrot-like creatures with two long, blue feathers on top of their heads, and fluffy white wings that resemble cotton, or clouds. The small species of Flying Type had short, rounded white beaks, white feet, and small blue tail feathers.

Dawn looked the entire flock over for a moment, before turning to her boyfriend with a puzzled look on her face, "Which one should I try to catch?" She asked him.

Ash contemplated that question for a moment before answering, "That one." He told her, pointing towards the Altaria flying at the rear end of the flock.

"Why that one?" The bluenette Coordinator questioned, she was rather curious as to why he picked the one trailing at the back of the flock.

"If I remember right about the majority of Flying Type Pokemon flocks," Ash began, his voice taking on a slight change of tone and becoming what Dawn liked to label as 'Ash's Pokemon Lecture Voice', "if you attack the leader of the flock, or the younglings the fully evolved bird Pokemon are protecting, then the entire flock will react violently, but the one at the back is more often than not the most powerful Pokemon in the flock and so takes the back in order to fend off any attacks." He continued to lecture, "And as the strongest battler of the flock, the rest of the flock will continue to fly away while that Pokemon will either buy time for them to escape, or defeat the opponent and catch up with them." Ash finally concluded his – rather long winded – lecture.

Dawn took a few moments to process just what Ash had told her, before nodding her understanding. "Right!" She replied, swinging her Pokedex in the direction of the Altaria at the rear end of the flock and hitting the scan button.

" _Altaria, the Humming Pokémon and the evolved form of Swablu. As Altaria flies across the sky, it resembles a soft cloud. It hums using its high Altaria is Male and has the ability Natural Cure. This Altaria has the ability to perform the attacks Dragonbreath, Sky Attack, Steel Wing, Dragon Rush, Mirror Move and Solarbeam_." The female voice of the Pokedex informed them in its usual monotone voice.

The Altaria resembled a large blue phoenix, except with a rather long neck and white blush like marks on its cheeks. The feathers of its body made it resemble a cumulus cloud and two long blue feathers extend from the back of its head. Altaria's blue feet had four toes, three forward and one backward, and it also had five tail feathers, the ones to the sides being longer than the inner ones.

"Holy crap, really?!" Ash blurted out. He gave an impressed whistle not a moment later, "That must be one damn strong Altaria, and probably a pretty mature one at that if it knows all of those attacks." He continued, adopting an amused grin, "Now I wish I decided to catch it instead." The teen told his girlfriend with a mock pout.

Dawn turned from her previous position of gaping at the Altaria, and couldn't help allowing a giggle of her own to break free at her boyfriend's reaction.

Although, one thing about it puzzled her. "What's Natural Cure?" She asked Ash.

Ash stopped his pouting and scratched his chin thoughtfully, "It's a pretty rare ability, actually." He answered honestly, "Basically, if your Pokemon has this ability and is effected by a status ailment such as a burn, paralysis or poisoning then if you take it out of the battle, generally by Pokeball, and give it a slight reprieve then its body will heal itself, and cure the ailment."

"Really?!" She practically shouted. The ability sounded almost too good to be true, but when Ash gave her a nod in confirmation she gave slight squeal of excitement, "That's so awesome! I definitely have to catch this Altaria now!" The short skirt wearing girl declared.

She quickly grabbed one of her Pokeballs and deftly released the Pokemon from within, "Let's go Ambipom, spotlight!" Dawn called out, releasing the Normal Type Pokemon from her Pokeball in a bright flash of silvery white light.

"Ambi ambi-Ambipom!" The purple twin tailed monkey Pokemon chattered excitedly as she appeared in front of Dawn and Ash standing on the river bank.

Dawn didn't bother wasting any more time. "Ambipom," She started, pointing towards the Altaria trailing up above behind the large flock of Pokemon, "Hit that Altaria with your newest move, use Shadow Ball!" She told the twin tailed Pokemon, her tone commanding.

Ambipom bounced on the heels of her feet excitedly as she lifted both hand-tipped tails up and formed a sphere of blackish-purple maismic energy. Using both tails, she gripped the sphere of ghostly power and sent it soaring into the skies towards the unawares Altaria.

Despite the rather large distance, the Shadow Ball met Altaria after only a few short moments and crashed forcefully into the dual Flying and Dragon Type Pokemon's flank, exploding powerfully on impact and sending the Altaria into a nose dive after a brief screech of pain.

The flock didn't stop despite Altaria being attacked. In fact, to prove Ash's theory correct, they picked up in speed and literally took off flying away as fast as they could. Leaving the Altaria to fend for himself.

Dawn visibly shook with excitement, readying an empty Pokeball in her hand and preparing to toss it at the Altaria.

Ash stopped her though, placing a hand on her shoulder and gaining her attention. "Don't count that Altaria out quite yet, that species of Pokemon are rather well known for being able to take quite a beating." He told his girlfriend.

And rightly so, because after nodding in reply to his statement she turned back towards where the Altaria was taking a nose dive, just in time to see the cloud-winged Pokemon right itself and steadily fly in place with a fierce glare directed towards Ambipom.

And just like Ash had not just a second ago gotten finished telling her. The Altaria looked completely fine and with ease took flight despite the flank of its body bleeding a vibrant red and staining the dual Flying and Dragon Type Pokemon's feathers a dark purple colour.

"Alltaaariiiiaaaaa!" The Pokemon cried angrily, extending both cloud shaped wings out as far as they could go and shooting straight down through the air towards Ambipom like a rocket. Especially so when a shroud of searing hot flames burst into existence and cloaked the attacking Pokemon's body.

Ash acted quickly and pulled her back with him a few feet, out of the immediate danger zone of where the battle was about to take place.

"That's a Sky Attack!" Ash revealed, pointing in the attacking Altaria's direction, "It's the strongest Flying Type attack there is, do NOT let Ambipom be hit by it, or this fight will be more or less over!" He continued forcefully, trying to convey just how dangerous being hit by an attack like that was.

Dawn nodded and stepped a bit in front of him, intending to take charge of the battle. "Wait for it Ambipom, just listen and do what I say." The bluenette told her Pokemon, receiving a thumbs up in reply by one of the hands on Ambipoms tails.

When Altaria was roughly ten metres from Ambipom and rapidly enclosing, Dawn acted. "Now, use Double Team!" She ordered her Pokemon sharply.

Ambipom flickered in place for moment before a multitude of clones of the Pokemon faded into view in long line to the sides of Ambipom.

Altaria reached and struck home, but it was not to be and the flame enshrouded Pokemon went straight through Ambipom and crashed into the stone river banks harshly.

"Alll!" Altaria cried out in pain. Pushing himself up with both cloud shaped wings shakily.

"Now Focus Punch!" Dawn followed up quickly.

Up above Altaria, Ambipom flickered into view both tail fists clenched and glowing a bright silvery white with powerful Fighting Type energy.

Off to the sides, Ambipom's clones all faded from view.

Swinging down with both tails and fists, Ambipom crashed the double Focus Punch's down harshly and without mercy on the Altaria.

Luckily for Altaria though, he managed to spin in place and launch two glowing silvery white wings up to meet Ambipom's tail fists head on.

Due to the momentum though, Altaria's defensive Steel Wing attack did little more than blunt the total impact of the attacks and was sent flying through the air, a few feet above the ground before falling a moment later a few feet away from its previous position with a pained cry, landing in a crumpled heap on the hard stone river bank.

"Now," Dawn followed up once again, "Ambipom, finish it off with Swift!" The sapphire eyed girl commanded.

Ambipom obeyed and and her tails began to glow a bright yellow. Swinging her tail, she sent a barrage of hundreds of golden condensed energy in the shape of stars hurtling towards the downed Altaria.

Altaria wasn't quite down yet though, and with a squawk of extreme pain the blue coloured Flying Pokemon launched himself into the air and allowed the many energy stars to miss completely and decimate a tree behind Altaria's previous position.

Pulling up into the air with his wings, Altaria used them to spring forward faster than the Pokemon had previously shown and jetted towards Ambipom once again.

Halfway towards Ambipom, Altaria's body exploded into an ominous blue energy that cloaked the Pokemon's body and took the form of an eerie roaring dragon.

"Dodge it!" Dawn shouted desperately after seeing the attack literally explode into existence.

But it was not to be. Ambipom froze up in fear at the sight of the ferocious image of a dragon and could not dodge and so took the full brunt of the powerful Dragon Rush attack.

The attack exploded into a massive pillar of smoke, the black cloud tickling at Ash and Dawn's noses with the scent of sulphur.

A moment later, two things happened. Altaria burst from atop the cloud of smoke and flew gently in spot. The Pokemon's body was literally covered from head to toe in bruises and large gashes, staining almost its entirety of once blue feathers a deep and painful looking purple, the feathers matting against each other and the skin below because of the wet and sticky blood that soaked them. Despite the image though, Altaria was clearly ready for more.

And finally the instance to occur was Ambipom shooting from the cloud and rolling across the river bank, landing in an unconscious bruised heap at Dawn's feet.

"Ambipom!" She cried out worriedly, dropping to her knee's to check the Pokemon over.

Ash stopped her from doing anything further though by pulling her back to her feet and pointing in the injured Altaria's direction, "You beat that Altaria and capture it." He told her, before continuing. "I'll take care of Ambipom." He continued resolutely.

Dawn nodded tearfully, pulling herself together, "Right..." She whispered, before turning to face Altaria once again, grasping another Pokeball as Ash lifted Ambipom up in a bridal carry and took it a few feet away to begin treating its injuries.

"Ponyta, I choose you!" Dawn shouted as she released her newest Pokemon in a burst of silvery light.

"Nyaaah!" Ponyta cried, her blue flamed mane sparkling brightly for a moment as she was released from the Pokeball.

Dawn immediately leaped into action. "Use Flamethrower!" The bluenette ordered. Ponyta obeyed and opened her mouth, firing a searing hot wave of red-orange flames towards the Altaria.

Dawn had a plan. She didn't want to injure the Altaria any further seeing as it was already hurt so badly.

' _But...'_ She thought worriedly, ' _For my plan to work, I need to get Altaria to come in close to Ponyta._ ' She finished silently.

She was in luck, thankfully. Altaria opened his mouth and fired a searing wave of flames of his own to counter-act Ponyta's Flamethrower, although Altaria's flames were a greenish-yellow in colour.

Both Flamethrower and Dragonbreath collided mid way between both Pokemon and created yet another explosion.

Altaria followed up quickly though and flew straight through the clouds, bursting through them just a few feet from Ponyta, both cloud shaped wings glowing a silver white with the power of a Steel Wing attack.

' _This is it!_ ' Dawn's thoughts blared, "Hypnosis, now!" She practically screamed the order to Ponyta.

The Ponyta of blue flames obeyed without a moments hesitation and rasied her snout. Meeting Altaria's eyes with her own as they began to glow a bright crimson red.

And just like that it was over.

Altaria's eyes glazed over before falling shut, and the dual Flying and Dragon Type Pokemon swiftly followed suit. The Steel Wing attack fading, and then Altaria dropped to the ground rather hard, but did not even wince from the impact into the cold stone river bank and continued to sleep peacefully.

Dawn took her chance, "Pokeball, let's go!" She called out as she tossed an empty Pokeball towards Altaria.

The Pokeball struck home, opened up and sucked Altaria inside with a beam of red energy. The ball rolled once, then twice, then finally a third time before coming to a stop and giving a soft 'ping' noise signifying Altaria's capture.

Dawn's serious expression slowly melted into a joyous grin, "Woo, I caught it!" She shouted happily.

Running over to Ponyta, she grasped the female Fire horse in a tight hug, "Well done girl, well done!" She praised, getting a 'Nyaaah' of happy satisfaction from her Pokemon.

Stepping back, Dawn lifted Ponyta's Pokeball and returned her to the inside of it and stashed it away.

Turning, she was about to run over and pick up Altaria's new Pokeball when it glowed a bright silvery white and literally disappeared!

"Aaaah!" She screamed in fright. Turning she met Ash who had finished treating Ambipom and had returned her to her Pokeball, while holding said Pokeball out to her, "Altaria's Pokeball just disappeared!" The wild eyed girl blurted out rapidly.

Ash chuckled amusedly as his girlfriend accepted Ambipom's Pokeball, "Don't worry, that was just it getting sent to Professor Oak back in Pallet Town to be looked after because you already have six Pokemon and are only still a beginner trainer." He relayed in reply to her panicking, laughter tickling at his voice.

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank Arceus, I thought somebody just stole Altaria after all the trouble I went through to catch him." She confided in return, visibly relaxing.

She sobered up a moment later though after casting a look towards Ambipom's Pokeball, "How is she...?" She questioned worriedly.

Ash gave her a grin, "'No need to worry." He quoted her most used phrase. A little bit of humour could go a long way to soothing a tense situation. "She only had a mild bruising and a bit of a concussion, so I gave her some Sitrus Berry and sprayed her with a bit Super Potion," The amber eyed teen pressed further, pausing for a moment to catch his breath after the long reply and then continuing, "She'll be right as rain after a little bit of rest." He finished up, his easy going grin doing wonders to soothe his girlfriends concerns.

A bright cheery smile overtook Dawn's features at the news. Excitedly, she quickly grabbed Ash by the shoulder with one hand and the back of his shaggy raven hair with the other and pulled him into a deep and passionate, tongue wrestling kiss.

* * *

The kiss would have lasted a lot longer than the two minutes it did, if a large and loud explosion didn't go off in the forest close by.

The earth shook under their feet from the force of the explosion, and both Ash and Dawn were abruptly broken apart.

"What the heck was that!?" Dawn hissed agitatedly as she regained her balance. She smoothed down her pink skirt and looked around angrily.

Ash was about to answer her when he caught sight of a large pillar of black smoke towering over the forest tree's a ways off to their right.

"It came from over there!" He said, pointing at the smoke.

Dawn turned to get an eyeful of it, as Ash grasped her hand and started pulling her along. "C'mon, somebody might have gotten hurt."

"Right." His girlfriend answered in reply, allowing him to drag her in the direction of the explosion.

Together, they took off into the forest rushing towards the epicentre of the blast radius.

* * *

When both boyfriend and girlfriend burst from the forest foliage into the area of the blast, they were not expecting to see two twin boys around their age, cheering excitedly into the camera of a female news reporter and her crew.

They were also not expecting to see two dejected boys trudge out of the clearing dejectedly.

"The hell?" Ash managed to utter, completely stupefied. Dawn not to far behind him.

Ash tried to rid himself of his dumbfound state of mind by shaking his head, but he was having no such luck. What the hell was up with people these days? Why the hell were two teen boys getting video'd by what looked to be a TV reporter and her camera crew in the middle of nowhere?

Both he and Dawn didn't go unnoticed for long. The female reporter spotted them and started chattering excitedly to the two twins, who in turn, turned to face them wide grins sporting on their faces.

Ash blinked owlishly at them as they walked towards him and Dawn. "Hey, you must be our next challengers!" The one on the right stated. The only difference between this boy and his twin was that his spiky green hair was a lot shaggier than his twins, and his red shirt had an orange bar running horizontally across the mid-section, where as his twins hair jutted up in perfect spikes and he had an orange bar running vertically down the length of his shirt.

"Hey, I'm Ryan!" The other twin introduced himself with a grin, pointing his thumb at his chest.

"And, I'm Bryan!" The first twin continued on after his twin.

"Aaaannnd..." They both began in sync, "We're the Champ Twinz!" They declared loudly, striking rather flamboyant poses beside one another.

"With a 'Z'." The right twin said with a wink.

' _Are these guys serious_?' Ash thought to himself incredulously.

"No really we're no-" Dawn tried to dissuade them, waving them off but Bryan cut her off. Holding an enlarged Pokeball aloft in his hand and pointed towards both Ash and Dawn.

"Get ready, to become the 18th win of our winning streak for the day!" Bryan declared, tossing his Pokeball into the air. His twin brother following straight after tossing his own Pokeball into the air.

"Croconaw, let's drown these guys!"

"Quilava, let's heat things up!

In two burst of bright silvery white energy, two Pokemon appeared directly in front of Ryan and Bryan.

The large blue bipedal crocodile like Pokemon, Dawn recognized. It was a Croconaw, she'd seen her boyfriend's quite a few times after all. Although, this one looked a little smaller than his rather excitable Crocodile.

The other one, she did not recognize. Quilava, Ryan had called it, didn't he? The blue haired Coordinator examined it closely, and she could see quite a resemblance between it and her boyfriends Cyndaquil. An Evolved form, perhaps?

Taking out her pink Pokedex, Dawn initiated the scan feature by pressing down on the 'scan' button. " _Quilava, the Volcano Pokémon, and the evolved form of Cyndaquil. Its body is covered with fire-proof fur and can withstand any Fire-type attack._ " Her Pokedex lectured, its tone of voice monotone as per usual.

Dawn grinned to herself, mentally patting herself on the back, ' _So I was right, it was the evolved form of a Cyndaquil._ ' She thought privately to herself, ' _All that studying I've done under Ash is really starting to pay off and bare fruit, I'm even now starting to see patterns between certain Pokemon. Score one for me!'_

Like its pre-evolution, Cyndaquil, the top half of Quilava's body was a darkish blue and the lower half a creamy-yellow colour. However, Quilava's entire body was slimmer in proportion and it was now a quadruped, instead of being a primarily bipedal Pokemon. Quilava had triangular ears with red-colored insides and possessed a much smaller, more rounded nose than the one it had as a Cyndaquil, and its eyes were actually wide open, revealing its red irises. Quilava had five red-colored spots on its body in which it projected flames from, two in a somewhat exclamation-mark shape on its forehead and three lined up horizontally on its rear.

' _Arceus I hope I was never this bullheaded and over-eager_.' Ash thought to himself with a grimace as he removed a Pokeball from his belt, and enlarged it with a quick tap to the button on it's centre.

He looked to his side, towards his girlfriend and rolled his amber eyes when he met her own sapphire blue ones. "Best just humour them, neh?" He stated, grinning at her boyishly, "Besides, it seems they want a Tag-battle with us, so we can see with it just how compatible we really are."

Tag-battles were originally created for couples. It put their bond to the test, in that they had to both be in complete sync with their partner and trust them completely and utterly to be the perfect tag-team battlers.

Ash was confident, that both he and Dawn would ace this little self-test of his with ease.

Dawn, meeting his eyes nodded in agreement. Trusting his judgement. So, that done she walked over to her boyfriend who quirked an eyebrow at her.

She merely smiled demurely at him though and swiftly reached into his backpack, deftly extracted her lazy starter Pokemon and tossed Piplup out in front of her, "I choose, Piplup." She stated with a giggle.

Ash couldn't help a chuckle of his own, as Piplup stood up with an angry chirp and gave Dawn a barely recognizable 'two-fingered salute' with his small wing.

Looking up, Ash grinned as he met his opponents eyes. "Guess, I'm up next then." He stated, tossing his Pokeball into the air which burst open and released his own Pokemon from within, "Riolu, show them our power!"

With the grace and skill of a born warrior. Riolu exploded from the silvery white energy and landed in front of Ash in a crouch, prepared for battle. " _I await your command, Master_." Riolu communicated to him through the use of Aura.

"Croconaw, let's start this off with Hydro Pump!" Bryan commanded quickly.

Ryan wasted no time and quickly followed up on his brothers attack plan, "Quilava, you come in behind that Hydro Pump with Flame Wheel!"

Both Pokemon obeyed.

Propping it's jaw, Croconaw fired a large pressurized cannon of spiralling water that roared through the air towards Riolu. Quilava behind it by a hair at most, sprinted into a jump and landed as a large spinning wheel of searing hot flames.

Ash reacted instantly, "Riolu, use Copycat on Croconaw!" He ordered swiftly. He left the countering of Quilava to Dawn, he knew he could trust her.

Riolu jumped up from his crouch, a dazzling deep blue aura erupting around his small lithe form before he opened his mouth and cocked his neck and head backwards.

Riolu snapped both forward lightning fast a moment later, opening his mouth and fired a large pressurized cannon of spiralling water just as large as Croconaw's, maybe even a bit bigger straight towards the approaching Hydro Pump.

Both Hydro Pump attacks met head on, impacted harshly against each other and for the lack of a better term cancelled each other out and causing a small rain-storm of energy infused water to spray down upon their battlefield.

Quilava continued to blitz forward as raging inferno like wheel of flames, straight towards the descending Riolu.

But, it was not to be for Quilava and Ryan sadly.

"Piplup, Bubblebeam!" Dawn called out as the Quilava rapidly approached Riolu.

Piplup, dismissing their earlier bickering obeyed and opened his beak wide. Firing a multitude of large turquoise blue bubbles of water based energy straight towards the flaming wheel that was Quilava.

Ryan cursed, "Quilava, disengage and use Quick Attack to escape!"

Quilava obeyed once more, and skidded to a halt the flames of it's previous attack flickering and dying down before dissipating. Skidding on it's two hind feet, Quilava sprung backwards into a sprint to the side with blurring speeds, so fast that a bright white energy trail was left behind it.

Successfully escaping the Bubblebeam that pulverized it's previous position. Quilava looked to it's side only, to yip in fright when it saw Riolu running right along side it as blurring speeds also.

Because, the moment Quilava evoked the power of the Quick Attack, Ash had communicated through the aura and ordered Riolu's next attack with his mind, ' _Copycat_ , _again_.'

"Now, Force Palm!" Ash followed up.

Riolu thrust one paw straight into the side of Quilava's face as they ran side by side, and from his power an energy blast fired off like a cannon and sent Quilava bouncing across the forest floor with a pained howl. Landing a few bounces later, in a pained heap under a tree.

"Grr!" Bryan growled at the sight of his twin brother's Pokemon being beaten around so thoroughly, "Croconaw, teach that little runt of a Riolu a lesson! Smash it with Headbutt!"

Croconaw obeyed and sprinted rapidly towards Riolu who had his back towards the charging Water-type.

Ash smirked, quickly taking a look at his girlfriend to confirm his beliefs. Seeing what he wanted, Ash gave a one single worded command, "Reversal."

On instincts enhanced by Aura, Riolu swiftly turned around and ducked under Croconaw's head by less than half a inch. Thrusting his small blue paws forward, Riolu grasped Croconaw under one arm and used the momentum and power behind the Headbutt attack, to cock Croconaw over his shoulder and toss him straight into Quilava who had just struggled back up to its feet, shakily.

Croconaw impacted with Quilava harshly, sending them both tumbling back to the ground. Croconaw with a grunt and nothing more, and Quilava with a loud yelp.

"Alright Dawn, let it rip!" Ash called out.

"Gotcha!" She replied to her amber eyed boyfriend's call. "Piplup, let's finish this with your newest move use Whirlpool!" The blue haired Coordinator commanded.

That caught the attention of both Ryan and Bryan who looked sharply, towards the mostly forgotten pair of Dawn and Piplup. Ash and Riolu had been so active and fast paced that all their attention had been situated upon those two alone.

And that's exactly what Dawn had been hoping for.

Piplup, who had already been charging his new attack up while Riolu got both target Pokemon into position. Cocked both small wings that were extended upwards into the air backwards, and then tossed them forward, hard.

And with those few gestures, the massive easily thirty foot towering glowing turquoise whirlpool of water aligned energy was sent flying through the air towards the downed forms of both Quilava and Croconaw.

"No!" Ryan called out, while Bryan hung his head in dismay.

By the time Croconaw and Quilava untangled from each other and shakily rose to their feet, it was already too late to do anything.

The massive whirlpool washed over them, sucking them up into the whirlpool and pressing down on them from all sides with a powerful crushing force that was known well to the inhabitants of the ocean depths.

That, plus the energy making up the attack repeatedly burning into both Pokemon was just too much for them. When the Whirlpool dissipated roughly a minute later, both Fire-Type and Water-Type Pokemon dropped to the forest floor completely out cold, covered from head to toe in deep bruising and in no shape to continue battling. And probably wouldn't be for some time.

Ash grinned as both twin boys dejectedly returned their Pokemon to their Pokeballs in twin beams of red energy. "Well that's our win then, neh?" Ash prodded his girlfriend.

Dawn smiled in amusement, "I guess it is," She answered, "And I guess we're quite compatible as a couple if this battle is anything to go by." She continued, winking suggestively at her boyfriend and giving him a demure pout.

"Damn straight!" Ash boasted, earning a delighted giggle from the blue haired girl.

As Dawn picked up Piplup and spun him around in joy of their win, Ash crouched down beside Riolu, Pokeball in hand. "Very well done, you're growing very quickly in strength little buddy."

Riolu bowed humbly to Ash, " _It is thanks to you and your expertise that I have been able to Master._ "

Ash smiled lightly at the reply, "I suppose, but then it wouldn't be possible if the student didn't want nor have the potential to learn now would it?" He countered amusedly.

That gave Riolu pause, " _I...did not think of it that way Master, but once again thank you for your teachings and praise alike, they please me in anyway, shape or form_." The small pre-evolved form of Lucario replied, somewhat hesitantly.

Ash chuckled, "And thank you for being such a great Pokemon," He replied in kind, "Now, take a nice long rest." The amber eyed teen continued, returning Riolu into the confines of his Pokeball in a beam of red energy.

As he stood back up, Ash stumbled slightly as Dawn plopped Piplup back down into his backpack beside Pikachu again without warning.

"A little warning next time?" He requested dryly, eyebrow twitching slightly.

Dawn gave a mock gasp of shock in reply, "Are you telling me, that the mighty Pokemon Ranger and Aura Guardian in training, Ash Ketchum couldn't even sense little ol' me?" She jokingly mocked him.

Ash did what any mature person would have done. Yes, he blushed slightly from embarrassment at the fact that because he was so used to Dawn, she could evade his senses when in his presence because of his familiarity with his girlfriend.

And so, his actions were as followed;

"Hmph!" Ash turned his nose up at her and briskly walked out of the forest clearing. Dawn following behind him, giggling all the way.

They didn't even bother to say goodbye to the so called 'Champ Twinz'. Why should they anyway? They rushed there because they thought someone was in trouble, only to practically forced into a tag-battle.

* * *

The very next morning, both Ash and Dawn finally arrived at Eterna Forest. They passed through small grass field before it and pushed though the foliage, entering straight into the forest.

Dawn wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she surely was not expecting the sight before her now.

The forest was filled with bright streaming sunlight than shone down upon the grass, flowers and tree's giving them a bright silvery mystical glow.

And even after just entering a small clearing in the Eterna Forest she could see crap loads of Bug Pokemon. A Burmy hanging from a tree. A Wurmple sleeping on a branch. A flock of Butterfree flying up above and even a pair of Scyther clashing bladed arm against bladed arm off to the side. And even quite a few she could not even recognize from memory.

It was like a Bug-type Pokemon paradise.

Dawn had to shield her eyes as the mystical glow of the forest seemed to brighten a moment later, "Why is it so bright, I can hardly see!" The blue haired Coordinator moaned disappointedly. She was missing out on the wondrous sights of the many Bug-type Pokemon.

She could be picking out one to catch right now!

Ash chuckled, "That would be all of the Bright Powder all over the forest." The amber eyed Ranger answered his girlfriends moaning, "It's an item that can be used to trick opponents into shutting their eyes because of how reminiscent it is of the sun." He continued, "It's an item that's produced by only select Bug-type Pokemon like, Butterfree, Beautifly, Mothim and Parasect, so in a forest like this that is basically filled with ninety percent Bug-tye Pokemon, it will be all over the place."

Finishing up his small lecture, Ash bent down and took a small jar from one of the side-pockets of his backpack and began scraping Bright Powder from the the many flowers around his feet.

Dawn sheltering her eyes under her hand looked down at him curiously, "What are you doing?" She inquired of her boyfriend.

Ash gave her a quick flash of a smile before getting back to scraping more Bright Powder into the jar as he answered, "Bright Power can be mixed in with some Pecha Berry, some Sitrus Berry and a few herbs and spices to create a drink for Pokemon that can improve eyesight and thanks to it''s brightness reduce the sensitivity of a Pokemon's eyes to bright flashes, which would help against the attack 'Flash' if it is ever used on your Pokemon." He answered.

"Wow! That's awesome!" Dawn chirped excitedly in reply.

Looking down on Ash as he concentrated, Dawn couldn't help but shake her head in bemusement. Even at a time like this, her boyfriend was putting his enjoyment on the back burner for a possible benefit for his Pokemon.

He was truly one of a kind.

And he was hers, all hers and there wasn't any way in hell she would ever let him go or let some other hussy sink her claws into him.


	14. Chapter 14

The morning after they set up camp within the Eterna Forest. Excitement was blazing and wild as both Ash and Dawn battled it out in a mock battle with their respective starters.

"Bubblebeam, Piplup!" Dawn ordered hastily as both Piplup and Pikachu stood on opposite sides of their mock battlefield.

There wasn't a single second delay in Piplup processing and heeding the command of his Trainer. Opening his small beak, Piplup launched a barrage of large, high powered energy infused glowing blue bubbles rocketing towards Pikachu.

"Heh, not gonna work Dawn." Ash taunted, thumbing his nose as a smirk spread across his face, "Pikachu, use Light Screen and charge straight through those bubbles." He ordered a moment later.

Dropping to all fours, Pikachu's body was covered in a light golden glow that didn't fade away at all. Instead staying strong and gleaming brightly off of Pikachu's body as the small yellow rodent Pokemon took off in a form-blurring sprint that Piplup could barely follow with his eyes.

And this was just Pikachu at the very base of his speed. Without any speed technique enhancements like Agility, Quick Attack or Extremespeed.

Pikachu met the barrage of bubbles head on, and charged straight through them without pause. Not once did Pikachu wince or break stride in his sprint, even as each bubble from the Bubblebeam attack met him head on and exploded powerfully on contact.

Light Screen was a supplementary Psychic-type Pokemon attack that allowed the Pokemon using it to lessen the damage they would receive from a special based attack by coating the body in a shield, or forming the shield in front of the body. Depending on the skill and power of the Pokemon using the technique, it could stop the damage of special based attacks from anywhere from a small amount of damage absorption all the way to possibly making the damage received from a much weaker Pokemon almost non-existent.

When Pikachu charged through the smoke kicked up from the Bubblebeam attack exploding on impact, Ash was ready.

"Now jump into the air, come down in a frontal flip and use Iron Tail." He commanded sharply. His amber eyes glinting with something akin to excitement. Truly nothing got his blood pumping like a good old Pokemon battle.

Except maybe his girlfriend, but those were for two entirely different reactions.

Jumping high into the air, Pikachu channelled his power straight into his tail and a moment later his tail erupted into a blinding silvery white that shone like the sun.

As Pikachu came out of his frontal flip, Dawn was already acting though. "Piplup, meet it head on with Peck!" The blue haired Coordinator retaliated.

It took less than a second at most for Piplup to congregate his own power into his beak and formed his signature 'enhanced Peck' technique. His beak lengthening to at least five times its normal size, and glowing a bright white with energy.

Jumping into the air, Piplup met Pikachu's swung tail head on with his beak and clashed his Peck attack against Pikachu's Iron Tail.

The attacks held up against each other for a moment, clashing against one another and trying to overpower the other. When, not but a moment later, did Piplup lose the stalemate and get launched back, rocketing back towards the ground. Thankfully for both Dawn and Piplup managing to skid to a halt on his feet as he landed.

Ash smirked once again. That was an expected result, and Dawn had a long way to go if she planned on having Piplup overpower Pikachu like that. Despite his small stature, Pikachu's physical strength was off the charts, having tossed massive Pokemon like Milotic and Gyarados in the past with just a grip on their hair or whiskers.

Piplup was already outmatched severely when it came to physical strength. But added on to that fact was with Pikachu's jump and frontal flip, Pikachu himself had added enough momentum to possibly enhance the power of the Iron Tail technique by a factor of two.

It was a good thing for Piplup though, Ash mused, that he'd made sure to tell Pikachu to hold back on the majority of his power for this battle. Or else Piplup probably would have ended up as a bloody smear on the ground.

And Ash really didn't want his best friend and partner splattering his girlfriend's Starter Pokemon all over the forest floors. Definitely not the way to earn browny points with his girlfriend. He was still trying to work off her ire with him for his _last_ stupid stunt, as she called it.

It wasn't like he went picking that fight with those Zangoose though! They picked it themselves and even with the number advantage they got their collective asses kicked by him and Monferno.

It was as he was thinking on this though that something registered to his aura enhanced senses. He could just barely make out the power of a strong human life-force just outside of the clearing where both he and Dawn were having their mock battle.

He knew they were watching both him and Dawn, where though? His sensing skills were his crappiest when it came to his Aura training. Comparing his sensing skills with those of the Lucario that began teaching him to use his Aura was like comparing a Gyarados to a Magikarp.

If they were watching him and his girlfriend though, Ash guessed they had a good vantage point somewhere high up, possibly in one of the tree's so they could get a good view of both him and Dawn battling it out.

That was fine with Ash though. He allowed one of his hands to brush against the Pokeballs attached to his belt. If this guy was just a curious spectator, all the better for them. But if not, he had quite a few Pokemon with him that would allow him to to deal with almost any threatening opposition.

With that, he allowed his mind to focus back on the battle just in time to see Pikachu spin over another barrage of bubbles from a Bubblebeam attack. Although, he made sure to keep his senses peaked in case this person watching them made a move to attack them.

He was confident in his and his Pokemon's power and prowess. But he wasn't stupid, completely at least.

"Alright Pikachu, use Double Team and then rush in with Iron Tail." Ash instructed calmly. His amber eyes settling on the battlefield once again and staying there. For now.

In a wide circle around Piplup, a few dozen clones of Pikachu materialized alongside the real one and started sprinting towards Piplup at breakneck speeds. Tails poised and glowing like the sun once again with the power of the Iron Tail technique, they closed in.

Ash watched Piplup keenly though. At the speed Pikachu was going, a Pokemon like Piplup wouldn't be fast enough to dodge, and there was noway Piplup could pick out the real one amongst all the fakes. Pikachu was swift enough on his feet to literally switch positions with his illusionary clones too fast for anyone to catch it with their eyes alone.

One would need senses enhanced to the limit by aura to even have a chance of keeping track of Pikachu at full speed.

So what, Ash mused to himself, would Dawn do in this type of situation?

He got his answer a moment later, when Pikachu was closing in on Piplup from all sides. "Use Mist!" The bluenette ordered sharply. Her voice quivering slightly with a tone of urgency.

Piplup obeyed instantly and opened his beak. Conjuring a thick white cloud-like substance from his mouth that was expelled quickly and erupted over the entire clearing and ensuring the visual skills of every person present was shrouded over.

Ash's smirk stretched just a tad, ' _Well played Dawn, but it's not enough._ ' He thought to himself. It was a good tactic, but Dawn's actions next were entirely to predictable for Ash due to his experience in Pokemon battles.

"Pikachu, jump into the air over Piplup's previous position and Thunderbolt straight upwards!" The Pokemon ranger called out over the dank fog blinding him from the battlefield.

All was quiet for a moment, as if time came to a standstill. And then the silence was broken by a loud cry of, "Pikachuuuu!" From within the middle of the dense mist.

The fog around Ash glowed yellow slightly before the power from Pikachu's Thunderbolt literally blew it away, and the battlefield came back into view. Pikachu hanging slightly in mid-air from the power he was letting out, shooting a towering arc of yellow electricity straight up, which caught Piplup who had jumped as high as he could into the air to dodge being overwhelmed by Pikachu's Double Team - Iron Tail Combo.

The arc of electricity washed over Piplup's body and was expelled high up into the air where it pierced a few clouds and dispersed - Pikachu having made the Thunderbolt attack merely wash over his opponent. Piplup's body and then send it careening up into the air. That way, atleast Piplup wouldn't have been flash fried and cooked into some Eterna Forest fried penguin.

"P-Piplup!" Dawn cried out in worry. Her voice wavering slightly as her sapphire colored eyes locked onto the prone figure of Piplup hanging in mid-air as the towering arc of electricity washed over his body.

It only washed over Piplup for no more than a second, but that was enough apparently. As Piplup folded in on himself and fell towards the grass covered flooring of the forest. His small blue feathered body limp and the water-type Pokemon himself barely clutching onto consciousness.

Thankfully though, for Dawn's nerves. Pikachu managed to wrap his long tail around Piplup and pull the small Water-type gently onto his back, while Pikachu himself eased into a perfect landing on all four paws.

By the time Pikachu lowered Piplup gently onto the ground, Dawn had already cleared the distance between herself and the two Pokemon and was already crouched above Piplup and fretting over him worriedly.

"Piplup!" She cried, "Are you okay?" She questioned, biting her lower lip in worry as she gently brushed the palm of her hand across Piplup's forehead.

While Dawn was busy fretting over Piplup's injured form, Ash had already made his way over to the tree behind him that both he and Dawn's backpack's and the like were situated under.

While he would have preferred to keep that battle going for a little while longer, to get a glimpse at the progress Dawn was making in her studies under him as both a Pokemon Trainer and a Coordinator.

The fact of the matter though, was that being watched by an unknown with a rather powerful life-force had Ash on edge no matter how much he wanted to deny it, even to himself.

He was confident in his own abilities as well as his Pokemon. But even he as good a trainer as he was, wasn't infallible and could be taken down with possibly ease if he was taken by surprise and couldn't react in time.

Not to mention, the rather large glaring problem with him possibly trying to take this person on head to head. He still had Dawn to worry about, and despite the large amount of progress she'd made thus far on her journey. She was still a rookie that would be in over her head trying to even take on an intermediate level Pokemon Trainer, never mind an Elite level one like himself.

He himself had been classified as an Intermediate level Pokemon Trainer by the time he'd competed in the Indigo Plateau, yes that was true. But the only reason he made that ranking was because of Charizard. Charizard may not have listened to him, but Charizard even back then was more powerful than the average Charizard. That Pokemon carried his team, even Pikachu, for quite a while due to his extreme raw power.

Charizard was at present the most powerful Charizard in the Charizific Valley easily, and while Ash liked to pretend sometimes that it was mostly due to his training with Charizard. It wasn't. That was only a small part of it. In reality, Charizard had a ton of raw power the very moment he had evolved and had only needed time to bring it out.

By the time Ash had chosen to start a new journey in Hoenn Charizard had already overtaken most of the elder Charizard in combat ability and easily outstripped them in terms of raw power.

There was a reason Charizard was able to defeat an Articuno, a legendary Pokemon said to create harsh country covering blizzards with just a flap of its wings.

If there was an evolution possible beyond Charizard's current level, Ash was sure it would have happened a long time ago.

But he digressed. Even back when Charizard had just evolved, he alone would be enough to destroy Dawn's entire Pokemon team in a battle, even if Altaria was factored in and the battle was a seven on one. Charizard would come out of that battle the victor.

So despite not wanting to end the mock battle with Dawn so soon, Ash had to, just to make sure he was on full alert and ready to retaliate in case this person made a threatening move against him or his girlfriend.

Kneeling down beside his own large backpack, the raven haired Trainer opened up the section that contained the medical supplies that Ash made sure to stock up on in every new village, town or city both he and Dawn visited.

He ignored the stock of various different potions, ranging from normal potions all the way up to a few very expensive and hard to obtain Max Potions. He ignored the sprays of Repel and every bottle of medicine designed to heal status ailments.

Instead, he pulled out a see through box roughly ten inches long and wide that seemed to hold a variety of different colored small cups sealed at the tops with plastic corks.

Setting it down on the grass quickly, Ash clicked the box open and surveyed the contents of the box intently until his amber colored eyes fell upon one sealed cup in particular that was colored a mixture of both green and yellow.

 _Cheri – Wacan - Sitrus_

That was what the label read, which Ash had stuck on the center of the cup. Inside the sealed cup was a mixture of three different berries ground up for their juices and properties and blended with a few tea spoons of Moomoo Milk.

It was a medicinal drink Brock created, along with all the others. Moomoo Milk was a delicious milk that could only be obtained from the Pokemon species Miltank, and had special healing properties that could heal Pokemon and even people better than any Super Potion could.

Sitrus Berry extracts were added for their own healing properties to boost the already great healing abilities of the Moomoo milk.

And then were the other two berries added. Cheri Berries were able to cure even the most drastic cases of Pokemon caused Paralyzation, which were mostly caused by powerful Electric-type attacks striking at the nerve system. Wacan Berries on the other hand, were berries with juices inside them that if digested could allow a Pokemon or person a limited time of resistance against Electric-type Pokemon attacks.

Wacan Berries were special berries grown in the Johto Region, along with a whole plethora of other similar berries that could offer resistance to all types of Pokemon attacks.

Picking it up between two fingers, Ash looked it over as he reminisced. This drink, along with all the others were special creations of Brock who designed them to heal Pokemon hurt badly by specific types of Pokemon attacks. Adding the healing properties of both the Sitrus Berry and Moomoo Milk aswell as the Cheri Berry and Wacan Berry made for a delicious fruity milk drink that did wonders for anyone, Pokemon or otherwise, damaged by Electric-type Pokemon attacks.

Thankfully for Ash, Brock wasn't a stingy guy in the least, and had given Ash the entire recipe list for all of his ' _all type healing smoothies_ ' as he liked to call them. And Ash made sure that he was stocked up on and or had fully prepared at least three of each type of drink before he left any of the human establishments that both he and Dawn stayed in during their travels.

They were expensive as hell, and quite taxing on both the muscles and the mind because of just how tedious they were to make. But they were definitely worth it, and at the level Ash's Pokemon would battle at with equal level opponents, they were extremely needed. Especially because attacks of the level his Pokemon and other's like them let out could easily kill a lesser Pokemon, or person for that matter.

That, and Ash liked to make sure his Pokemon were working at one-hundred percent efficiency all the time. They would need to be at their level best for the challenges that were sure to come in the coming months. The Pokemon League, Team Galactic, Elite Four members and quite possibly some more Legendary Pokemon.

Because, what was a whole new region without some Legendary Pokemon catastrophe sweeping Ash and co into its currents? It happened so often, Ash was sure he'd feel odd if that type of situation didn't occur for him again.

After all, nowadays it was kind of his job to deal with situations like that seeing as he was a Pokemon Ranger now.

Shaking his head, he stood up with the smoothie in hand and made his way over towards Dawn and the two Pokemon. "Outta the way Dawn, comin' through!" He stated, his voice a tad louder than normal as he calmly walked up to her side and hip-checked her to the side to get in closer towards Piplup.

"Oi!" Dawn retorted as she stumbled back a bit, glaring in annoyance at Ash who knelt by Piplup's side and lifted the small Water-type Pokemon's head up to rest on his knee. "You could have just asked ya know, instead of rudely bumping me outta the way like a typical boy!" The blue haired girl growled out at him.

As he fed some of the smoothie into Piplup's throat and allowed the small Pokemon to gulp slowly from the cup, Ash turned to Dawn and wiggled his eyebrows at her, a grin splitting his face, "Oooh! I just love that growl in your voice Dawn it's sexy as hell." He purred out suggestively, his tone huskier than the norm.

A red hue of embarrassment spread across Dawn's face. Growling to herself, the bluenette stuck her hands on her hips and glared at him, "I'm serious Ash, that wasn't cool at all." She retorted in annoyance.

Ash held her gaze for a few moments, before he sighed and allowed his playful look to fade. "Sorry, I was just trying to get your attention off of Piplup for now." He told her, sighing again he pushed on, "Look, it's fine to get worried for your Pokemon, but all Pokemon are significantly stronger than we humans and can take these kind of injuries easily and be fine." He continued to tell her.

And to prove his point, Piplup suddenly bounced up onto his small feet again, chirping happily from his small yellow beak. "Pip, Piplup!" He chirped, meeting Dawn's blue eyes and thumping his small blue chest proudly with one of his small wings.

Ash watched her reaction, varying from shock to happiness within a split second before finally setting on resignation. "It's becoming a bit of a recurring theme now isn't it?" Dawn asked them as a whole, planting herself down on her backside with a weary sigh, "My Pokemon get injured, I cry out in worry, then stand around like a useless little girl as you fix everything right up for me Ash."

Ash allowed himself a small snort in amusement. Reaching over towards his girlfriend, he cupped her cheek with his right hand gently and made her meet his eyes with her own blue ones, "Look Dawn." He started slowly, "You've only been a trainer for two months, there's no way you could know everything about them with such a little amount of experience under your belt... but I promise, the more experienced you become the better you'll be able to tell just what and won't do any significant damage to your Pokemon." Ash lectured softly, his voice nary above a whisper.

Dawn was silent for a few moments, looking away from Ash with heated cheeks. Finally, she turned her attention back towards him though and met his eyes with her own once again, "Okay." She responded, "But... so far you've only focused mostly on teaching me about Pokemon battles, so how about you focus on teaching me more about taking care of my Pokemon now instead? I think you've taught me more than enough about battling for the moment and I'd be better of learning how to care for my Pokemon..."

He frowned thoughtfully at her for a moment, before shaking his head, "Okay, fine sure Dawn I'll teach you all I know about caring for Pokemon." The Pokemon Ranger replied.

When his response reached her ears, Dawn's rather melancholy look morphed almost immediately into one of joy and she wrapped her arms around Ash's neck, hugging herself into his chest with a happy sequel of something akin to joy, "Thank you, thank you! I promise you won't regret it." She mumbled into his chest.

Ash ignored her for the moment, instead he looked to Pikachu and met the small rodent Pokemon eye's with his own. Both trainer and Pokemon's eyes becoming intense and serious. He nodded towards Piplup and Pikachu nodded once, before suddenly wrapping his long tail around Piplup's midsection and jumping towards the other side of the clearing.

Ash followed his example, wrapping his arms under Dawn's legs he began to speak to her, "Just not right this minute Dawn." He told her.

Dawn looked up at him from his chest questioningly, "Why?" She questioned.

"Because..." Ash started, standing up and holding Dawn bridal style - something which she wasn't opposed to in the least, "We're being watched." He finished, leaping backwards powerfully and landing on the other side of the clearing beside Pikachu and Piplup.

"We're being what!?" Dawn questioned urgently.

But Ash ignored her, instead his serious amber eyes were locked onto a large tree on the other side of the clearing.

"Show yourself! Before I start having my Pokemon fire and ask questions later!" Ash barked out. His voice loud and commanding, as if attempting to make whoever it was obey through the tone of his voice alone.

He didn't have to wait long for a reply, a blur shot from the foliage of the tree straight up into the air. The spur spun forward in mid-air and came down powerfully landing on two feet, slightly bent at the knee's to absorb the impact of his large jump.

Finally, Ash got a good look at who he deduced was spying on him and his girlfriend. It was a young man, a few years older than both he and Dawn at the most. He was slightly taller than Ash himself, and held a lean muscled physique. His hair, was in a type of mushroom style and a pale green color. And he was wearing a pair of black sneakers, orangish-brown cargo pants and a black tank top that showed off his lean muscular arms.

"Who the hell are you?" Ash asked forcefully, setting Dawn down on her feet at his side.

Dawn gasped softly beside him, but Ash ignored her for the moment. Instead, he was focused intently on the young man standing on the opposite side of the clearing. His aura senses were blazing in his mind, warning him just how much of a threat this guy was if they were to fight.

The man laughed softly, standing up to his full height. Ash finally noticed that he had one large lock of pale green hair flicking straight up from his mushroom hairstyle. "Wow you're a bit highstrung there aren't you buddy?" He retorted easily, his green eyes locked on Ash's form and filled with amusement.

Ash snorted, "Only when some creep is spying on me and my girlfriend like some kinda stalker." He replied bitingly.

The green haired man winced, "Ouch, yeah you've got me there buddy." He replied with a laugh, "But I was honestly just passing by and saw you guys having a battle so I decided to get a better vantage point to watch it from in that tree I was in earlier." He continued easily, scratching the nape of his neck sheepishly.

Ash didn't allow his suspicious look to fade though, instead he continued to keep his eyes locked on the man warily. If experience had taught him anything, it was that it was very easy for some people to put up a very convincing façade.

Finally though, Dawn broke the silence with another gasp, "He's... He's...!" She stuttered.

Annoyed, Ash turned to her with a raised eyebrow, "He's who?" He asked bluntly.

"He's... Aaron of the Sinnoh Elite Four!" She blurted out with another gasp.

Ash's eyes widened, before narrowing slightly. He processed that information quickly, and allowed a small smirk to spread across his tanned face.

 _'Elite Four, eh?'_

The man, Aaron, laughed again, bringing their attention swinging back towards him. "Haha, I honestly didn't expect to be recognize so easily out in this forest." He stated through his chuckles.

"Hm?" Ash grunted as he let his amber eyes rove over the man's frame, "So you're one of the five strongest trainers in Sinnoh, eh?" He questioned quickly, and gruffly.

The man chuckled again, "Yup, that's me, Aaron the Bug-type specialist of the Sinnoh Elite Four, nice to meet'cha!" Aaron replied with a cheerful wave.

"Ash Ketchum." Ash replied, smirking in Aaron's direction, "How about to apologize for acting all stalker-like towards me and my girlfriend you have a battle with me?" He asked intently, his eyes alight with a fire Dawn, who was looking at him in bewilderment, had never seen before.

It was because, finally, Ash had found a challenge. All of his time through Sinnoh, the only Trainer's he'd met were all below him. In fact, the only one that even came close to his level was Paul, and that kid allowed his anger to guide him and so wasn't very hard to overcome despite the fact that his Pokemon were clearly at the level expected of an Elite Level Trainer.

Dawn looked at him from his side, mouth agape. "You're just gonna challenge a member of the Elite Four right off the bat without any preparation at all!?" She questioned her boyfriend in disbelief.

She knew he was good, amazing even. And even though she believed Professor Rowan's words when he told her that Ash was clearly at the level of some of the Elite Four, it still mystified her that he'd challenge an Elite Four member without one moment preamble.

The Elite Four were regarded as the best of the best for a reason. Even she, as inexperienced as she was, knew that it would take an army of normal Trainers and their Pokemon to even pose a challenge for a member of the Elite Four. Their Pokemon were so powerful, some people regarded them as Pokemon who had ascended into the ranks of Legendaries.

Ash turned towards her, a grin stretched across his face, "Of course!" He replied, "It's more fun that way!" He continued to tell her, his grin stretching further up across his cheeks.

Aaron scratched the back of his head thoughtfully, "Eh..." He trailed off thoughtfully for a moment, "Sure why not?" He snapped back in reply a moment later.

Adrenaline pumped through Ash's system, "Sweet, lets do this!" He shouted, "I've been waiting for a challenge like this ever since I came to the Sinnoh Region."

He turned to his girlfriend beside him, "Dawn, you take Piplup and Pikachu and stand out of the way of the battle." He told her promptly, before switching his attention back on Aaron.

It was more of an order really, and Dawn recognized it. "Sure, right away Lord Ash!" She chirped back sarcastically. Annoyed, she turned on her pink booted feet and stomped away towards the tree line, muttering annoyed curses all the way. Pikachu and Piplup hesitantly following her.

* * *

"He better know what he's doing!" Dawn grunted angrily to herself as she reached the apparent safety of the Tree line.

She was standing far out of the way of this battle, who knew what kinda damage these two idiot's Pokemon were going to cause?

She sighed. Sometimes, despite how cool he initially appeared to her, her boyfriend was just too damn headstrong sometimes.

And to think, when she first met him she thought he was one of those cool, calm headed mysterious guys always in control of the situation.

Still, there was something undeniably hot about how alight with fire he was for this battle. She'd yet to see her boyfriend this truly excited for a battle since she met him.

Was he really that hard up for a challenging battle that he would challenge and Elite Four member without pause?

* * *

"Alrighty then." Aaron said, holding a Pokeball aloft in his right hand, "I guess I'll pick my Pokemon first, being the Elite Four member here, it's only fair."

"Go, Drapion!" He shouted, tossing the Pokeball high into the air and releasing the Pokemon from within with a silvery burst of light.

In front of him on the forest floor, appeared a truly massive Drapion. Scarred and battle hardened, it was truly an intimidating sight.

Looking it over, Ash could see that it was even bigger than his own Drapion. Probably towering over it by a good foot, at least.

He wasn't scared in the least though, instead his veins pumped with more and more adrenaline as he reached for one of the Pokeballs on his belt.

"I hope you aren't too intimidated by Drapion, but he is my strongest Pokemon all in all and it's been a while since he's been in a battle, so I thought I'd use him here." Aaron called out to Ash.

Ash shook his head, smirking all the while. His body trembled slightly, probably what Aaron mistook for fear in the first place. "You misunderstand me." He called back, "I'm not shaking because I'm scared, I'm shaking because I'm excited!"

Tossing his own Pokeball up, Ash released his own Pokemon. "Let's match poison with poison then, go Drapion!"

In font of Ash, Drapion appeared in a burst of silvery light to herald his own arrival to the battle field. To his credit, Drapion didn't even bat an eye at the bigger Drapion in front of him instead he snapped his pincers menacingly towards the behemoth of a Drapion ready to battle any opposition for his Trainer.

Aaron chuckled, "Now this is interesting! I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of using my Drapion to battle against another Drapion, they're usually very temperamental and hard to raise."

Ash smirked haughtily at him, "Heh, I didn't see that when I caught Drapion. In fact, he's been as tame as a lovely little Growlithe pup since the very moment I captured him." He replied.

Aaron chuckled again, amused at the banter. "I guess I'll start us off then!" He suddenly shouted, "Drapion, Cross Poison!" He commanded.

His behemoth of a Drapion crossed its long arms across its chest. Both arms glowed a bright purple, before it launched both crossed arms outwards and launched a massive X-shaped purple blast of energy.

Ash was already on the counter offensive though, "Smash it down with Aqua Tail, and then use Pin Missile!" He ordered.

The X-shaped attack blitzed across the clearing and was upon Ash's Drapion within moments, but he was ready for it. From behind and above him, his large tail came – glowing a cyan blue – came crashing down smashing the attack into grassy floor cratering from the impact. When the tail met the ground, a wave of pressurized water was conjured and roared towards the behemoth Drapion like a tidal wave threatening to swallow it whole.

But Ash's Drapion wasn't done yet, as a follow up it launched both claws forward and launched dozens upon dozens of silvery arrow-headed beams of power rocketing in behind the roaring wave of water.

Aaron wasn't abut to be outmanoeuvred so quickly though, "Blow it all away, Hyper Beam!" He shouted to his own Drapion.

It, like Aaron, didn't even flinch at the two high levelled attacks barrelling down upon it. A Testament to it's own power and experience.

Obeying, it opened its mouth and without even charging the attack for more than a second it launched a massive devastating orange beam of energy right at the attacks sent towards it by Ash's Drapion.

The Hyper Beam tore through the attacks like they were paper, leaving nothing but specks of water and energy flickering gently through the air.

The orange beam continued on though, encroaching upon the smaller Drapion with a speed a Pokemon like a Drapion could not hope to evade.

But Ash was already ready for this kind of scenario. He knew that as bulky as Drapion was, it would never be a very swift Pokemon. So he'd worked on a few techniques to help make up for that.

"Protect!" He commanded quickly.

His Drapion didn't hesitate for a moment, lifting its long stretchable arms it conjured a massive green dome of protective energy around its body. Just in time for the Hyper Beam to make contact with the dome.

Drapion grunted, the dome of protective energy wavering slightly. But held strong long enough for the Hyper Beam to lose it's focus and trigger a massive explosion.

The power of the explosion was so fierce that it actually blew a tree to the side of Drapion right out from the roots and sent it careening meters into the forest behind it.

The entire sequence of attacks took less than 45 seconds.

* * *

"What kind of battle is this!" Dawn screamed, her hands barely managing to stop her short pink skirt from being blown up over her torso and probably giving anyone watching quite the free show.

Thankfully, that was all she had to worry about though. Pikachu stood in front of her and Piplup protective and un-moveable, Glowing slightly with the power of a Light Screen technique, ready to protect Dawn and Piplup from any of the attacks that ended up heading their way.

Dawn had never seen a battle like this! It was one thing to hear about these kind of battles in passing. It was another matter altogether to actually watch one up close and personal. It was like a clash between two titans, two beings that no normal person or Pokemon could ever hope to stand against.

...It was as scary as it was exciting.

* * *

When the massive plume of smoke triggered by the explosion of the Hyper Beam cleared. Both Drapion came back into view, having met in an exchange in the middle of the clearing, claws locked and attempting to push the other into submission.

Suddenly, at the exact same time the tails of both Drapion launched up from behind them and met in another exchange, slashing against each other reminiscent of powerful swords. Each clash sending a shockwave of air booming throughout the clearing.

Aaron was looking to end the stalemate though, "Hyper Beam again!" In fact, he was intending to end this match right here and now. He was not expecting some kid he had met out in the forest to match his most powerful Pokemon so evenly.

Who the hell was this kid!?

"Knock its face upwards with Whirlwind!" Ash commanded to Drapion as a counter attack.

Aaron's Drapion opened its mouth, throat glowing ominously with a bright orange light. But just before it could fire, the smaller Drapion of the two opened its mouth and let loose a loud bellow that launched a torrential force of wind straight into the larger Drapion's chin, forcing the larger of the two's face to be forced upwards just as it launched its attack.

The Hyper Beam roared upwards and exploded harshly in the sky, lighting the cloudless blue sky up a bright orange for a few moments from the sheer power of the attack.

Still though, after launching such a powerful attack so quickly even Aaron's behemoth of a Drapion had to take a few moments to recharge its power.

It lost ground immediately, and Ash took immediate advantage as his own Drapion began to press it downwards.

"Disengage, and then use a double Brick Break followed by Iron Tail!" Ash pressed further. Now was his chance to take the win against the Elite Four member.

Ash's Drapion obeyed and slackened its grip on the behemoth of a Drapion, before pulling back. The strength the larger Drapion was putting into its opposition of the smaller Drapion despite its recharging carried over, and the momentum sent it tumbling forward slightly.

Ash's Drapion was ready for it, and brought down two glowing white arms straight atop the larger Drapion's cranium, before swiftly and rapidly turning sideways and smashing a massive glowing white tail straight into the larger Drapion's cheek and sending it flying into a tree a good few meters away.

The rapid combination of attacks left Aaron's behemoth of a Drapion laying in a crumpled heap on the ground.

But Ash wasn't fooled. No way could the strongest Pokemon of an Elite Four member be brought down so easily!

"Don't let it recover!" Ash shouted, "Follow up with Cross Poison!" He ordered.

His Drapion obeyed and without question, crossed his arms and launched a large X-shaped purple blast of energy rocketing towards the fallen form of the other Drapion.

"Thunder Fang!" Aaron suddenly shouted.

As the Cross Poison attack was almost upon the fallen Drapion, its face shot up in a blur, making good use of its body, as it did so without even having to stand up on its legs to face the attack. It opened its mouth and its teeth sparked with a dangerous yellow electricity and it bit down on the X-shaped attack, tearing straight through it and leaving little but energy flaking through the air behind.

Despite taking three extremely powerful attacks to the head and face, the Drapion looked fine as if it took no damage at all. The only tell-tale signs of it actually receiving any damage at all being a few small bruises on the top of its head, and another small one on its right cheek.

It followed up by jumping to its legs and roaring an angry challenge towards the smaller Drapion. Who responded in kind, roaring right back at the larger form of its species.

As one, they rushed each other over the few metres separating each other.

"Night Slash!" Ash ordered.

"X-Scissor!" Aaron countered in reply.

Both Drapion's claws erupted into red energy. Ash's, an ominous black-red glow and Aaron's a bright red glow as they met and clashed their claws like swords once again. Each clash of attacks sending shockwaves booming throughout the clearing, tearing the grass beneath them asunder and even beginning to uproot some tree's.

"Flash!" Aaron suddenly ordered out of the blue, just as both Drapion were about to meet in another exchange of Night Slash vs X-scissor.

Ash's Drapion rushed in, ready to slash its claws straight down the larger Drapion's face, but it never got the chance as the other Drapion's eyes glowed a bright silver before erupting like the sun in his face.

The smaller Drapion roared in agony, flinching back and grabbing at his face as it floundered about in temporary blindness.

"Shit! Protect!" Ash ordered urgently, but it was no use. His Pokemon was to caught up in the shock on his blindness and the pain on his retinas.

"Now Payback!" Aaron continued, his tone holding a certain satisfaction of victory.

His massive Drapion growled, expelling a large ring of black miasmic energy that shot straight at Ash's Drapion and exploded powerfully.

The Smaller of the two Drapion roared in agony again, and was sent blasting powerfully right into a tree behind it.

Drapion passed through the tree like a knife through butter, leaving shattered bark and nothing else. Drapion rocketed right through into another clearing, skidding along on its side and laying still.

The larger Drapion followed right behind, ready to end this battle right this very second! Both Ash and Aaron right on its heels heading into the other clearing.

Ash's Drapion had recovered slightly though, and glared up through bloodshot eyes towards the behemoth of a Drapion rushing towards him, intending to put the smaller Drapion in a world of hurt.

It never made it though.

"Earthquake, now!" Ash commanded sharply, his voice echoing out from behind the massive stature of Aaron's Drapion.

The smaller Drapion obeyed his Trainer without hesitation. He could trust his Trainer with his life, as Ash had told him when he was first captured by Ash and left behind by Hunter J. They were family!

His tail lifted up into the air, and came down powerfully. Burying itself into the ground and beginning to make the very ground beneath them shake, break and crater.

The attack left the other Drapion wobbling around unsteadily, and giving the fallen Drapion the much needed chance to regain its standing.

The Earthquake died out around them a moment later, and both Drapion met each others eyes. One's eyes pure white, the other a bloodshot red from the earlier Flash attack.

Together, they roared their challenges and rushed each other once again. Only one of the two would walk away the winner here.

And both intended it to be them!


	15. Chapter 15

It was a stalemate, or so it appeared.

The two seemingly titan-like Pokemon clashed once again, locking their clawed arms together and pushing against each other with all of their strength, intending to make the other buckle beneath their power and force them to submit.

But slowly, ever so slowly the smaller of the two Pokemon began to buckle underneath the sheer physical strength of the larger Pokemon. The Drapion, a behemoth even amongst it's own large sized species was slowly forcing it's opponent - a Drapion, a Pokemon of the same species except quite a bit smaller in stature – lower and lower towards the grassy flooring of the forest clearing they were battling in.

Ash grit his teeth. Both he and Drapion were losing ground here, and slowly the battle was shifting with it. The more ground he lost, the more his opponent Aaron and his behemoth of a Drapion gained.

But, even with his experience as a Trainer, and all of the tough situations he'd managed to squirm his way out of. There just wasn't very much he could do that his opponent couldn't counter in some way, shape or form.

With his arms indisposed at the moment, that left his Drapion without the ability to use the attacks Cross Poison, Pin Missile, Brick Break or Night Slash.

He could order Drapion to use his tail for an attack, possibly with Aqua Tail or Iron Tail, but then the other Drapion could counter with it's own tail, and using Hyper Beam was a no go as well because the behemoth of a Drapion could charge up a Hyper Beam attack much faster than his own Drapion could.

Still, it was now or never. He had to act now, or he'd risk losing this battle altogether. So he acted on instinct, his mind hyper-focusing on the battle and adrenaline pumping through as veins as if he himself was in the battle along side his Drapion.

"Aqua Tail straight down onto the ground!" Ash barked out sharply.

His Drapion, hearing the order, put all its strength into pushing forward and jerking the opposing and much larger Drapion backwards just an inch, but it was enough to give the smaller of the two the time he needed to act upon his Trainer's orders.

"Poison Sting! Don't let up even for a moment Drapion!" Aaron commanded in return. He wasn't about to let the kid gain back the advantage, when he'd just started to push him backwards. But he had to hand it to the kid, he was sure as hell making him work for this effort. Only other members of the Elite Four and those close to that level had offered him this kind of challenge in a long while.

It was as exciting to Aaron as it was annoying, that some kid he'd never even heard of was matching his most powerful Pokemon blow for blow with his own Drapion, which was significantly smaller than his own.

Just as Ash's Drapion lifted it's tail up and brought it down harshly upon the grassy forest floor, Aaron's own Drapion opened it's mouth and fired a continuous barrage of purple, sharp pointed needles of energy straight down upon the face of it's opponent.

Ash winced as the needles exploded powerfully on impact – and Arceus, did every Pokemon attack explode? - and heard the roar of pain from his own Drapion. But it didn't last long, because as soon as the needles exploded on contact with his face, the smaller Drapion of the two's tail made contact with the ground and a massive wave of rushing water roared forth from the spot of impact.

The wave of water expanded in both size and width, easily towering over both Drapion and it impacted both dual Poison and Dark-type Pokemon, sweeping both of their feet and carrying them with it.

Or it appeared to, because a moment later the larger of the two Drapion roared and stood straight up, stretching its torso and head right up over the top of the wave of water.

Ash's eyes widened. ' _Shit_!' He cursed inwardly, he hadn't expected that behemoth of a Drapion to be that physically powerful, even with it's immense size.

He had planned to use the wave as a kamikaze manoeuvre and use it to attack both his own Pokemon and Aaron's, but the plan was two fold. He had planned for his Drapion to crash into the other and pin it when they came out of the rushing torrent of water with the leverage gained by the rushing waters, and then he could finish this battle up with a point black Hyper Beam straight to the behemoth's face.

But it seemed he'd underestimated the strength of Aaron's Drapion. And severely so. He winced as the raging waves of water calmed down and quickly trickled away to show his own Drapion locked between the arms of the larger Drapion.

His plan had worked against him in this instance, and he kicked himself mentally. And there was nothing he could do here to break the hold of the other Drapion until Aaron flowed into his next plan of action.

His own Drapion had both it's arms and tail locked together with its body in a tight embrace against the larger Drapion's body, and it's mouth was smothered by the hard armor plated torso of the behemoth meaning that he couldn't order Drapion to attack with Hyper Beam to break out of the hold.

At the very least though, he didn't have to wait any longer for Aaron to plan out an attack, because he was already going through the motions for it already.

"Alright Drapion, Siesmic Toss!" Aaron ordered quickly. He was going to end this battle now, before this kid and his admittedly very powerful Drapion managed to turn the tables and defeat him. Now wouldn't that be embarrassing?

The behemoth of a Drapion let loose a loud tree shaking roar, and then with a thrust it used it's titanic level of physical strength and stretched it's arms upwards rapidly as far as they could go, Ash's Drapion still locked in a tight embrace between the powerful clawed arms as it stretched up slightly past twenty feet.

Ash had to fight back a whistle, even his Drapion with it's sizeable and stretchable arms couldn't reach much over ten feet in comparison to this behemoth that could reach easily over twenty. But now wasn't the time to be impressed, this was his only chance to steal victory from the claws of defeat.

"Hyper Beam!" The amber eyed ranger shouted, his tone conveying the urgency that his Drapion needed to abide to.

Time was not their friend in this instance.

The smaller Drapion, despite being suspended high up in the air still followed his Trainer's commands to a 'T'. Cocking his mouth, the smaller Drapion charged the attack as quickly as it could. A compressed orb of ominous orange energy began to flicker and form between his gaping maw.

But it was all for naught, because no sooner did the orb manifest, did the behemoth of a Drapion tug downwards with all of it's strength and smashed the smaller Drapion into the earth with all of it's power.

The ground cratered beneath the smaller Drapion leaving a hole a few feet deep straight in the middle of the grassy floor of the forest clearing, but even then Aaron was still not finished.

"Finish this now!" He bellowed out towards his behemoth Drapion, "Hyper Beam!"

The massive Drapion roared and obeyed, opening it's mouth it charged it's attack for all of a second before firing it outwards in a massive encompassing beam of deadly orange energy.

Ash watched with a critical eye, he would not look away from such an epic show down. ' _And_.' He thought to himself, smirking slightly, _'We're not out just yet_.'

The plume of smoke and debris that was kicked up by the impact when Drapion was smashed into the ground cleared to reveal the Pokemon standing. One of it's purple armour plated legs was in shreds, blood flowing freely from the wound and one of the Pokemon's blood shot eyes was swollen shut. But in it's mouth, a large orb of compressed orange energy pulsed with incredible power.

Even when taking such a powerful blow, Drapion did not stop charging his attack. His Trainer commanded his use of Hyper Beam to defeat this monster of it's own species, and he would follow the orders of his Trainer and fire a Hyper Beam if it killed him.

"Release the Hyper Beam now!" Ash commanded, his intense eyes glinting in anticipating.

As he'd commanded the release of the attack, the behemoth of a Drapion's own Hyper Beam had already travelled halfway towards the smaller of the two Drapion and was enclosing rapidly.

With a guttural roar of defiance and pain, Ash's Drapion released his own Hyper Beam towards the incoming one. The beam of power just as large, bright and intimidating as the opposing beam of energy.

The two extremely powerful beams of energy clashed and pushed against each other, each seeking to over power the other.

Both Drapion pumping more and more of their energy into the attacks along the way, causing the meeting of the two beams in the middle to form into a large volatile sphere of energy that continued to expand and look more volatile all the while.

Ash locked his amber eyes with Aaron's own green eyes, and both stared hard. Like their Pokemon, they both were not willing to back down. Only one team here was going to walk away the winners!

Ash felt it a moment before it occurred. His aura enhanced senses blazing across the forefront of his mind, blaring for him to take cover, something big and powerful was about to occur. But he wouldn't do it. He was going to stand here alongside his Drapion.

How could he not with all the hard work Drapion had put in thus far for him? They hadn't even been together for all that long yet as Pokemon and trainer, as family. But even now, Drapion was loyal to a fault, and even went out of his way to help Ash out or go the extra mile during training.

He would not be a coward and abandon such a great and loyal Pokemon, especially not when it was putting all this effort in just for him.

So he stood strong as the massive orb of orange energy flashed once more, and he stood strong as it exploded so powerfully that the entire clearing was bathed in an orange light, and the leaves off of every tree were blown off and sent flying away as if dragged in by a powerful hurricane.

When the orb detonated in on itself, both Drapion received the brunt of the impact. And shielding his eyes, Ash stayed strong determined to wait out the end.

Whether they won or lost though, he was mightily impressed with his Drapion. He had not expected him to be able to battle at this level, not for quite the while yet. But his Drapion had matched the strongest Pokemon of an Elite Four members team and matched it blow for blow, never backing down even when it was clear that the other Drapion severely outclassed it in both power and experience. He went the distance on raw guts and loyalty to Ash alone.

* * *

"Aah!" Dawn screamed, shielding her eyes. This battle had just been one giant surprise after another. She'd never seen a battle fought like this before. Even one blow from that behemoth of a Drapion would have left her strongest Pokemon unconscious and quite possibly seriously injured.

The sheer level that these Pokemon fought at was inconceivable to her. And she'd seen it with her very own eyes!

But the question was, who had won. Her boyfriend and his Drapion? Or the Elite Four member and his own Drapion?

She awaited with baited breath for the smoke and dust to clear. And when it did, she let loose a sigh of disappointment.

Both Drapion appeared on opposite sides of the clearing. Aaron's behemoth of a Drapion was standing, although it looked ready to keel over at any given moment. It's face, once purpled and armoured, was swollen into a deep dark blue and a large gash of blood ran freely from the tip of it's chest, bashing most of it's torso in it's blood and finally one of it's front legs was mangled at the knee, forming a cluster of criss-crossing burns seeping with blood.

On the other hand, Ash's own Drapion looked like one big bruise, the majority of his body was burnt and bruised, his entire torso dyed a deep dark blue just like the other Drapion's face. But Dawn couldn't see the face of Ash's Drapion, because he was laying face down and un-moving on the ground.

"...So close..." She muttered in disappointment.

* * *

He sighed, closing his eyes he allowed himself to take a deep breath. And then, he opened his amber colored eyes once again, his orbs glowing with warmth and a small prideful smile came to his face.

He walked over to Drapion and knelt by his Pokemon's side. He looked down and met Drapion's eyes from where the Pokemon was looking up at him in what he could make out for either shame or depression on his Pokemon's part, the way Drapion's eyes were drawn together and downcast said it all, and it seemed that this loss stung at him more than his injuries despite being unable to move at the moment.

He flashed his proud smile in his direction and reached over, softly rubbing the back of Drapion's head, "Good job buddy, you battled harder than I could have expected you to and you deserve a nice long rest." He said soothingly.

His aura had it's uses, even in a moment like this. Pokemon he was close to, he could almost understand them perfectly, but it wasn't them communicating through a mutual language that allowed it. His aura, with it he could touch the minds of his Pokemon and their thoughts and feelings could become his own if they allowed it.

But the reverse was also possible. Unseen by anyone else in the clearing, his hand began to glow with a light blue energy, and with each gentle stroke of his hand across the back of his Pokemon's head it became stronger, and a link was forged.

It was complicated, and had a bunch of inner workings that he couldn't understand at all. But, he was good at it nonetheless. Like using a computer without knowing the inner functions of the device.

They rushed forth like a steady stream of water, his feelings poured into Drapion. A little bit of disappointment from losing the battle, but it was entirely over shadowed by the massive well of pride and affection that he held for the Pokemon.

Finally, after a few moments Ash allowed the link to fade and he smiled down at Drapion. Drapion returning the look, one eye swollen shut, and the other bloodshot but spilling with tears of happiness nonetheless.

Ash lifted the Pokeball of his Pokemon up, "There there buddy, take a nice long rest and later on tonight I'll get you all fixed up." He told the beaten and bruised Pokemon reassuringly. And with that, he returned the Pokemon to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy for a much needed rest.

That done, Ash stood up and turned to see Aaron making his way over to him, his own Drapion already returned to it's Pokeball as well. No doubt after the damage his Drapion had done to it, that it would need some medical attention later and a really long rest like his own Drapion would.

Walking towards the approaching Aaron, he met him half way. He threw a grin the older males way, "Well, that was a hell of a battle." He stated with a chuckle.

Aaron apparently agreed, as he broke out into a few chuckles himself, "That it was." He replied, "Maaaan..." He sighed deeply, "I was so not expecting some random person I met out in a stroll though Eterna Forest to put up a battle like that, I've gotta hand it to you that Drapion of yours is really powerful, in fact with some more training and a little more experience under it's belt I'd say it would as strong as my own Drapion!" The green haired elite concluded.

Ash grinned at the praise of his Pokemon, his pride for him growing all the more. "Heh, thanks." He replied.

He was about to open his mouth to comment further, when his blue haired girlfriend popped up at his side.

"Hey Ash, how's Drapion?" The pink skirt wearing girl asked softly, concern evident in her voice.

Ash almost jumped, but thankfully managed to restrain himself from making himself look like a complete and utter fool. He was so used to his developing Aura senses that Dawn being able to slip past his radar from being so familiar to him really freaked him out at times.

Ash gave her a small smirk in reply, "No need to worry Dawn." He replied, once gain with her ever so famous phrase. She pouted in annoyance in return to his comment and he laughed, "Drapion will be fine I just need to let him rest for a bit and then give him a few medicinal items later on and he'll be right as rain."

When Dawn sighed in relief and nodded, Ash turned his attention back towards Aaron. "So..." He trailed off slightly, thinking of the words he wanted to say, "What were you doing all the way out here Aaron?" He questioned.

Worry began to cloud his mind, Elite Four members were usually only sighted frequently when something big was going down. Had Team Galactic made their bid for power already? Had something else devastating occurred?

Thankfully, Aaron was quick, unwittingly defusing that notion, "Oh nothing all that interesting really." He replied, "I travelled down this way from Eterna City after I arrived with Cynthia, this is the place where I caught the majority of my Pokemon and started off my journey way back when with my Skorupi, so I like to come here every now and then and relive those fond memories." As he continued, he didn't notice his casual reference to a certain blonde haired Regional Champion.

Dawn gasped from behind him, and Ash himself wasn't too far away from gaping he was sure, "Cynthia, as in Cynthia Shirona the Champion Master of Sinnoh!?" Ash blurted out. Excitement once again filled his veins! The possibilities if it was true could be incredibly awesome!

"Mmmhmm." Aaron replied matter of factly.

"Awesome..." Ash breathed out, unable to contain his excitement. "So what's she doing in Eterna City?" The teenage Pokemon Ranger questioned next.

"She's actually there for two reasons." The green haired elite responded, "She's there to research the ancient statues of Dialga and Palkia, and to watch over the battle event being held there in a few days."

"Battle event?" Both Ash and Dawn questioned at the same time.

Aaron noting the interest in their voices smirked, "Oh yeah, it's a big tournament that some bigwigs in the League association are holding for their usual public affairs campaign." He replied to their question.

"But that's not all!" He started quickly again, cutting off any impending questions from the two younger teenagers, "The winner of the tournament receives a special prize... a collection of three Meganite stones."

It took a second for that name to ring a bell for Ash, and when it did his eyes widened drastically, "You're shitting me!?" He blurted out loudly in disbelief.

Aaron shook his head in amusement, "I shit you not, dude."

"Wow..." Ash breathed, "Three Meganite stones... holy shit!"

Dawn, who had been quiet up to this point couldn't stand being in the unknown any longer, "Ash!" She shouted, drawing her boyfriends attention towards her once again, "What the hell is a Meganite stone?" She questioned in annoyance.

Ash looked at her like she'd grown a second head for a moment, but then he reminded himself that she hadn't been a Trainer for very long and it should have been very likely that she wouldn't have even heard about the stones yet.

"They're evolution stones Dawn." He told her, "But not just any Evolution stones, they're Evolution stones that grant some Pokemon with the needed power and ability to evolve even further than their final forms, It's been called Mega Evolution and the Mega Forms of all Pokemon are said to increase their power drastically." Ash further explained to his blue haired girlfriend.

Dawn's eyes widened as she slowly processed the information given to her by her boyfriend, "Wow..." She breathed out, reminiscent of her boyfriend just a few moments prior, "But why haven't more people and their Pokemon done this then?" She sobered up from her awe to question.

Ash smirked at her, "Not just any Pokemon can undergo a Mega Evolution, they need to be extremely powerful already or the Meganite just won't react to the Pokemon, and even then once the Meganite reacts the Pokemon still has to have the ability and will to evolve further than their full form, not to mention a great need for the evolution to even take place in the first place." He replied.

"Indeed." Aaron picked up where he left of, "Without those key requirements, a Mega Evolution cannot be obtained. Which is a good thing, because the amount of power that comes with those evolutions should never be allowed to be misused, it could lead to disaster." The green haired elite stated.

"So then..." Dawn began, "If there's so little Pokemon that have achieved it, how do you know all about the power that comes after the Mega Evolution." She questioned, peering intently at both her boyfriend and the Elite Four member with her piercing sapphire blue eyes.

"Cynthia." Ash stated in return.

"Cynthia?" Dawn questioned in confusion at the abrupt statement.

"Yes Cynthia." Aaron affirmed, "And I know just how much the power increase is, because I've seen her new mega Pokemon battle. A year ago, we of the Elite Four could still give her challenges in battle, but ever since her Garchomp and Lucario gained the ability to Mega Evolve, she has been able to destroy our entire team's of Pokemon with only one of her own."

Dawn gasped, but Ash he had a different reaction. He almost choked on his own spit. Taking out the entire team of an Elite Four member with just one Pokemon?! That was insane! One member of an Elite Four's team could take on an army of lower levelled Pokemon, and both Cynthia's Garchomp and Lucario could defeat entire teams of them alone?

Arceus above, he wanted to battle her so badly right now. What a challenge it would be! What an epic clash it would result in! Adrenaline pumped in his veigns, and his aura sang with excitement.

...But he reined it in for now, best not burn out from excitement before the chance even presented itself. And even then, he only had Pikachu for now ready and able to battle at such a level. And then the only other Pokemon that could go at that level was Charizard.

Not counting Mewtwo that is.

But, if he got his hands on those Meganite stones would Charizard be able to evolve further? Would he able to attain the highly sought out ability of Mega Evolution? What about any of his other Pokemon, could Sceptile do it? Could Snorlax and any of his other fully evolved Pokemon?

Time would tell.

But that could wait a little while yet, for now he needed to get them moving. Now that he'd heard about this tournament, he wanted in.

He came out of his thoughts and looked up at Aaron with a smirk, "Sorry Aaron, but it seems we're gonna have to cut our little meeting here off early, I want to see off and get to Eterna City by tomorrow." The amber eyed teen stated.

Aaron merely chuckled in reply, "I thought as much, you strike me as the guy that just loves a great battle." He replied, "So don't let me hold you back, I was about to head on my way anyway there's a rumour of a really powerful Vespiqueen lurking deeper in the forest and I'd like to capture it." With that said, he began walking on his way towards the end of the clearing, tossing a wave and a, "Later." Over his shoulder as he went.

"Bye!" Dawn chirped, waving towards his retreating figure. Finally, when he disappeared through the trees she turned to Ash, a question burning in her piercing sapphire blue eyes once again, "So what's the big rush?" She inquired of her boyfriend. She planted her hands on her hips and sauntered over towards him, making sure to swing her hips as she done so.

When she reached him, she touched a small smooth skinned palm atop his muscled chest and gave him a smirk of her own, "Huh?" She questioned.

Ash turned his head downwards and caught her blue eyes with his own amber colored ones. "This tournament." He answered promptly, "Winning that tournament might just be the big break I've been looking for lately, if I can get Charizard to mega-evolve I'm sure I'll have enough fire power – joke intended – to win the Sinnoh Regional Cup and then take on the Elite Four." Ash continued.

Dawn allowed her smirk to fade into a warm smile, and she removed her hand from his chest. Instead she swung her two arms around his neck and interlocked her fingers to keep him locked in her lovers embrace, "I can tell just how excited it has you, I could feel your heart beating really hard in your chest, it was like you were running a marathon." The blue haired female teen replied.

This time it was Ash that smirked. He places his hands gently, but firmly on her slender hips, "So no different from when you tend to act a little naughty with me then, eh?" He questioned in return, his voice husky.

Bending his neck, he ever so slowly, and gently trailed his nose up from the bottom to the top of her neck, placing a small kiss on the side of her jaw when he reached her face.

Dawn's breathing became laboured, and her beautiful face began to take on a red flush. "I'd like to think I can get you more excited than just a regular old Pokemon battle." She whispered back at him. Nudging her nose against his, as if asking for entry.

Ash smiled, and he indulged her. Tilted his head to the side lightly, he allowed his mouth to part open slightly and Dawn was all too keen to take the invitation.

Placing her lips upon his own, she slipped her tongue inside his mouth. She moaned slightly into his mouth when his tongue met hers halfway and began to circle around it, pulling it lightly at some points and oh so much more.

She felt arousal deep within her core, her legs becoming shaky beneath her. She gripped the back of his neck hard, her fingers sinking into the part of his hair that fell to the nape of his neck.

She couldn't believe just how amazing it was to kiss him. He knew all the right buttons to push, but then it was over and her eyelids – when did she even close them? – opened up to reveal her blue eyes to the world again as she mewled in disappointment at the ending of the passionate kissing.

Ash pulled away from her, slipping from her embrace with ease due to how gelatinous her limbs felt to her at the moment. The pleasure of the kiss had shocked her senseless it seemed.

She never thought when people stated they were 'kissed senseless' or were 'going to kiss someone senseless' that they were actually being completely serious.

Ash gave her a smirk over his shoulder, "Excite me more than Pokemon battling?" He questioned with a chuckle, "Nah, I'd say roughly about the same to be honest." And with that he headed over towards his backpack to begin their trek through the Eterna Forest towards Eterna City once again.

Thankfully for him, with his back turned towards Dawn as he was walking away from her. She couldn't see as he adjusted his uncomfortably tight pants around the crotch area.

Dawn stood there gaping at him for quite a few moments. She couldn't believe he'd leave her hanging when she was so into it!

' _What a tease_!' She realized in her head. Was that because she had rescinded his lap dace for picking a fight and getting beat up by those Zangoose?

If she knew that this would have happened when she done so, she wouldn't have bothered rescinding it. It wasn't like she was opposed to it in the least. She would just love to cross that last line with him. It wasn't like they were too young. Pokemon Trainers were adults the moment they received their Pokemon Trainer License.

She knew for a fact that Lucas the junior assistant of Professor Rowan was engaged and he was the same age as her. He'd lived just down the road from her growing up, and they'd been decent friends so she'd been invited to the engagement party. In fact their wedding would fall in just under a year when Lucas turned fourteen years old. And that was an average everyday occurrence. She'd heard of a couple of ten year old Trainers a few years back got married right after starting their journey. That was admittedly a tad young, but there was no law against it and they were a famous duo of Trainer and Coordinator nowadays. Jimmy and Marina Gold were there names if she recalled.

But she digressed! That so was not called for! Growling angrily, she began stomping towards the trees her boyfriend had just disappeared through, "You are so not getting any tonight Ash Ketchum!" She shouted towards his retreating figure.

Just because she wanted to didn't mean she would! For that act of teasing, he'd have to wait for that event patiently!

' _Stupid teasing idiot_!' She growled once again internally.

* * *

The sun had set, and night had washed over the Eterna Forest, basking the entire canopy in serene darkness. The only sounds, that of the wild Pokemon amongst the forest foliage.

Ash though, was not bathed in the eternal darkness of night. But instead, the area they had camped in was illuminated by a large brilliant flame compliments of Monferno's Flamethrower attack.

Dawn, along with all of the Pokemon had retired for the night and she was already fast sleep in their tent. Had been for a good hour now. Although, she had been rather annoyed with him for breaking off that heavy make out session with her.

But he digressed, resting wasn't on the agenda for a few hours yet for Ash himself.

No, instead he was hard at work massaging medicine into the armoured plates of Drapion's body. Drapion was fast asleep beneath him as he worked diligently. It was a taxing job.

He winced once again, for easily the dozenth time that night as the skin along his palms and fingers was again chafed harshly by the armoured plating of his Pokemon.

But still, he refused to stop until his job was complete. He had to dig his fingers in hard and deep to even come remotely close reaching the knotted muscles of his Pokemon through it's extremely durable exoskeleton.

If he was a normal person, he would never have the strength required to do this sort of thing. But thankfully, with his aura training came an augmented strength that allowed him the physical power needed for him to press hard enough into the armoured plates upon Drapion's body to reach the muscles.

It was painful work though. The more he massaged, the more he chafed and then the more sensitive the skin of his hands became.

Still though, it wasn't like he hadn't done this type of thing before. And so, he knew he could work through the pain. Throughout his journey as a Pokemon Trainer he'd had quite a few Pokemon that had rough skin or something like that. The first time he'd ever done something like this had been when Charizard was handed his first major loss. And through that and his diligence in getting Charizard back to full health. He had finally regained Charizard's respect and become a Trainer Charizard was proud to fight for.

The other's weren't as memorable as the one with Charizard, but he remembered them nonetheless. Larvitar, Donphan, Sceptile, Glalie and Torkoal had all been Pokemon with some form of rough skin that he'd had to massage like this at one point.

At least nobody could accuse him of having girly hands though when all was said and done. His hands had quite a few calluses that were mostly gained from this exact method of massaging the knots out of their muscles from under their rough body protection.

It was the hardest attempt at it yet though, and the most painful. Because Drapion didn't just have rough skin, he had an armour plated exoskeleton over said rough skin as well.

To distract himself from the stinging pain in his hands, Ash allowed his mind to drift onto the information he'd obtained from Aaron earlier that day.

A Tournament where the winner received three Meganite Evolution stones as a prize, and Cynthia the Champion Master of the Sinnoh Region would be there.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, even to himself. The fact was that despite all the excitement he felt at the prospect of it, he knew he could not hope to win a full out battle against Cynthia. Especially now that Aaron had revealed just how much more powerful her Garchomp and Lucario had become from attaining their Mega Evolution forms.

Both Pikachu and Charizard could possibly take those Pokemon on and defeat them as things were, but they'd be out of the battle after that. And that was assuming they could even pull through with a draw at the very least.

After them in terms of battle ability and power was Sceptile. But Sceptile wasn't strong enough yet to take part in a battle with Cynthia. Not anymore at least.

It was common knowledge to all Trainer's that the stronger a Trainer's most powerful Pokemon, the stronger their other Pokemon would become from training day in, day out with that Pokemon. Ash had no doubt that thanks to training with both Mega Lucario and Mega Garchomp, all of Cynthia's other pokemon had grown by leaps and bounds in strength since then as well.

Pokemon had no limits to how powerful they could become after all.

And then further down the totem pole of his entire family of Pokemon, a step below Sceptile was Snorlax, Heracross, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Pidgeot, Primeape and from what he saw earlier today, Drapion had been added to the ranks of those Pokemon of his.

None of the rest even had a chance of taking on Pokemon like Cynthia's, and even less against her Mega Evolution forms of Lucario and Garchomp.

He sighed, idly looking up towards the calm night sky above. ' _What should I do_?' The young Pokemon ranger questioned himself internally, ' _What can I do to bridge the gap between me and someone on Cynthia's level_?'

There was a simple solution, one he'd already thought of but cast it aside. He could pick his six strongest Pokemon of all and train them privately and intensely for the upcoming Lily Of The Valley Conference.

But that would mean he would have to stop rotating all of his Pokemon around again. And he knew how disappointed that would leave the Pokemon he did not pick. It would be as if he were picking favorites.

And he just honestly couldn't do that his Pokemon. He wasn't lying when he said to Drapion that he viewed his Pokemon as family. He and Pikachu had become so close after that incident with the flock of Spearow, that they shot straight through the awkward beginning phase and went straight into affectionate best friends, that then evolved further into a familial love that reminded him of siblings.

Along the way similar bonds had formed between he and his other Pokemon. To Donphan and Pupitar, he was their father figure. He had hatched and raised them from egg's, protected them when they were weak and vulnerable. Bayleef saw him in a different light, ever since he first rescued her from that snow storm back at the beginning of his Johto journey. She looked up to him with a hero worship among hero worship, to her he was the older big brother figure that would protect her from all that wished her harm, and would her unconditionally until the day he died.

Even Mewtwo still regarded him with a certain type of awe. Despite being infinitely more intelligent and powerful than him, Mewtwo looked up to him almost like a little brother did their cool older brother that served as their role model. Mewtwo admired his character, and wished to be like him. In Mewtwo's on wistful words, he was passionate, courageous, selfless and a whole other slew of character defining traits that all, human, Pokemon or otherwise, should try to emulate and strive to be like.

It seemed like Mewtwo was completely unaware of his flaws as a person, but as long as he – Mewtwo – was happy, he would not bring it up and shatter his personal views and opinions of him.

Charizard, it was hard to describe his relationship with Charizard. There was an immense level of fondness between them both. But it felt as though Charizard was always working at 150% to make up for a past wrong he had committed against Ash.

It was easy to deduce that Charizard was trying to make up for the Indigo League all those years back. But no matter how many times he told Charizard that he didn't need to make up for it, he never had to in the first place. Charizard still strived to pull any and all victory in battles for him, winning him countless memorable battles in the process. His defeating of his childhood rival Gary, as well as Noland and his Articuno only being a small few of the big ones.

With those kind of relationships. Relationships he had forged with his Pokemon through the good times, bad times, the blood and the tears. He had no right to trample on those relationships, and he would die before he allowed them to be shallowed.

Because, like he said. They were family, him, his mother, his Pokemon and hopefully one day Dawn and her Pokemon too. Family, always and forever.

So no, he would not stop rotating his Pokemon and train his six strongest exclusively and extensively.

' _No_.' He thought with a smirk. Standing up, he looked Drapion over for a few moments before nodding to himself in a pleased fashion. His work for the night was done, he unclipped Drapion's Pokeball from his belt and returned him to the confines within and then swiftly shrunk the Pokeball and clipped it back on to his belt.

The answer to his problem was simple.

 _No_ , instead he'd just have to increase the intensity of the training all of his Pokemon went through. Every single one of them, from the strongest to the very weakest.

The Training would have to wait until he and Dawn reached Eterna City though. He would need a few much needed supplies if he was going to go through with his intensive training program idea.

And that would mean he'd need to stock up on a plentiful amount of healing medicinal supplies before he started. Because the training would be so intense, injury would be expected to happen.

He'd hold back of course, on the Pokemon who didn't want to go through such a training routine. And the impending happen stances of injury that were bound to occur had been what had stayed his hand back when he thought of the training program in the Hoenn Region.

But he very well knew that a good few of his Pokemon would be raring to take part in such strenuous and rewarding schedule. Off the top of his head, Charizard, Sceptile, Riolu and Primeape were prime subjects.

With that, he finally relented to his exhaustion the day had piled upon him and he began making his way towards both he and Dawn's shared tent. Not even bothering to put out the fire, he'd had Monferno use his Dig technique to burrow down and dig a deep trench around the flames to keep them from spreading.

He was halfway towards his tent when another thought occurred to him. He stopped in his tracks and paused for a moment, sliding his right hand into his black cargo jeans pocket and pulling out his Xtranceiver.

Switching the new-tyle cellphone on, he opened up his saved contacts list and scrolled down to the section under 'C'. He continued scrolling until he finally came upon one of the lower contacts on the list under 'C'.

 _Charicific Valley_

The beckoning realm of morpheus could wait a few minutes longer, Ash mused to himself. Selecting the contact now, he hit the call button and held the Xtranceiver up to his ear.

He had an old buddy to call in to action. That big lizard would be seriously pissed off if he went and left him out of an event as big as this, especially when his future plans for the winnings involved him mostly.

The Xtranceiver rang three times, before finally someone picked up, "Eliza, hey, it's Ash. I was wondering if you could do me a big favour..."


	16. Chapter 16

They arrived in Eterna City the very next day. Ash had made sure that both he and Dawn were awake extra early to go through their training routine's.

Dawn had commented – read complained – about the injustice of it all. Waking her up at such an ungodly hour, only to be thrown right into Training her Pokemon and then straight after forced to travel quickly towards their destination in Eterna City.

Ash hadn't been deterred in the least though. Instead he laughed her complaints off and actually forced her to pick up the pace by powering on ahead at a quick gait himself.

The journey took them another good few hours, and it passed noon and went straight into the early afternoon by the time they arrived in Eterna City and headed straight for the resident Pokemon center to book a room for the week very least.

They had quite the few events to attend to in their arrival to this City. Dawn had a contest to compete in, and Ash... well Ash had three main objectives in the city; obtain his second badge, compete in the tournament to win himself those Meganite Stones, and then finally he wanted to challenge Cynthia to a battle.

It was time to see how he stacked up against the very best. Someone said to have been just as good a battler as Lance Wataru – the master of all Dragon-type Pokemon – was, and then now better because of the new Mega Evolution Forms of her original two strongest Pokemon.

* * *

They had obtained a room easily enough, and had no need to have their Pokemon checked up. Ash had made sure they were in tip-top shape before they left their camp after the morning training had been called to a halt for the day.

Now inside the spacious double-sized single bedroom, Ash set his bag down at the side of the bed and then turned towards, Dawn who had sat down at the room's provided computer, already scrolling and reading through any recent news on the Pokemon Contect Circuit.

"I'm gonna head on out Dawn, I've got a couple errands to run." Ash said to her, holding out his arm and allowing Pikachu to seamlessly leap form his place on the bed onto Ash's shoulder.

Dawn snorted and turned around to face him from her previous direction of looking at the computer screen, "You mean you're off to register for that tournament, right?" She stated, more than asked flatly.

Ash gave the blue haired girl a grin, "You saw right through me then eh?" He asked with a chuckle, "Well when we were walking here through the city I heard some guys talking about the Meganite Tournament beginning tonight so I need to go get registered." The amber eyed teen supplied.

"Hmm.." Dawn hummed thoughtfully, "That shouldn't take too long though, and you said a couple of errands so what else do you need to do?" She questioned her boyfriend.

Ash allowed his grin to stretch a bit, scratching the back of his neck as he replied, "I'm going to transfer over a couple of my Pokemon, stock up on our supplies and.." He trailed off slightly for a moment, "Then I'm gonna go get my second Gym Badge." Ash finished.

Dawn blinked, "Really, just like that?" She questioned, "You're just gonna go off and take a Gym Battle without any preparation at all?" The blue haired girl pressed further.

Ash's grin faded, his face overtaken by a serious look, his amber eyes almost blazing in intensity. "I already know this Gym Leader specializes in Grass-type Pokemon, and I don't want to have it on my mind and throw me off my game later during the tournament so I'm going to go win the Gym Badge and get it out of the way." Were his answers towards her questions.

Usually, he would use a Gym Battle to allow some of his newer and weaker Pokemon to fight against the Gym Leaders to get a feeling for high level battling.

But today wasn't like that. Today, for this tournament only. He was transferring out all of his Pokemon besides Pikachu and Mewtwo. This tournament had such a rare, extravagant and expensive prize that there were bound to be tons of Elite level trainers crawling around itching to get their hands on those Meganite Stones.

He needed to call in all the fire power he could to win.

Dawn seemed unsure of his reasoning, but she shook it off. "Well then, good luck I suppose." The pink skirt wearing girl replied.

Ash smiled, allowing his intensely serious look to fade, "Thanks." He walked over to her and leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss against her soft pink lips, before pulling back and looking her in the eyes, "Meet me at the arena where they're holding the tournament tonight around half seven, the first round begins at eight on the dot." He told her.

Dawn nodded, "Okay, I'll see you then." She said in return.

Ash nodded, and then pressed one last kiss on her lips before standing up and departing from the room.

When he shut the door behind him, Dawn slumped backwards in her chair, "Jeez, he's really serious about this tournament, he must want those Meganite Stones a lot." She muttered to herself.

Still, forceful Ash was just as hot as she imagined, the blue haired girl mused to herself with a giggle.

* * *

He traversed the Pokemon Center quickly, heading towards the video phones and Pokemon Transporter machine's.

Sure, he could have just as easily – and no doubt faster – used his Pokedex to transfer his Pokemon between himself and the Oak Ranch. But, he was due a call home anytime now. It had been weeks since he'd last called the residents back in Pallet Town after all.

He had his Xtranceiver of course, but he preferred to make his calls home on the big screen video phones.

Still, he'd only be calling Professor Oak for now. He'd intended to talk to his mother for quite a while, but he didn't have the time for it now.

Although, Arceus above man. He still hadn't told anybody back home about him having a girlfriend! It wasn't like his mother would be against it. He was sure she would be thrilled at the idea, she had been hinting for a while now as to him possibly dating a few different girls. Misty and May being two of them.

But then there was Leaf Green as well, his mother knew all about the crush he'd held once upon a time on the older girl who used to babysit him and Gary and regale them with stories of her travels as a Trainer and the Pokemon she had run into or captured along her journey.

And finally, Serena. She was a close childhood friend of his who'd moved to the Kalos Region a year or so before he started his journey as a Pokemon Trainer.

He'd heard from his mother that she called every so often to check up on him, but all the times she had called so far, he'd been out on his journey.

She had a crush on him when they were children apparently. He'd been dumbstruck when Gary had revealed that to him during their talk out on the beach after their battle, and consecutive ending of their childhood rivalry at the Silver Conference.

He hoped she'd moved on, because he was a one girl kinda guy... Despite only having experience in dating the one girl so far, he mused in amusement.

He shook those thoughts off as he finally arrived at the video phones and Pokemon transporters. Picking up the phone, he punched in the numbers for Professor Oak's lab number and waited patiently – for the moment – as it began to ring.

Thankfully, someone must have been in the lab at that moment because it was picked up after only two successful rings and the blank screen lit up to show the lab of Professor Oak, as untidy as he remembered and the Professor himself on the other end.

"Ash!" He cried in genuinely surprised happiness. "It's good to see you my boy, how are you?" The older male asked conversationally.

Ash smiled at him, "Hey Professor, I'm doing pretty good." He replied, "I've arrived in Eterna City and want to transfer all of my Pokemon besides Pikachu and get a specific batch of my Pokemon sent over here to me." The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger continued.

Professor Oak raised an eyebrow, "Oh?" He said, "Why didn't you just transfer them with your Pokedex like you have been doing lately?" Oak questioned.

Ash allowed a smirk to crack, "It's been a while since we've spoken, so I just wanted to call you guys up and tell you how things have been going." The black haired teen replied.

Professor Oak smiled at that, "So then, how are things going in Eterna City?" He asked.

"Pretty good." The younger of two replied, "But get this Professor Oak, there's a tournament being held here that's starting tonight and the prize for the winner is three Meganite Stones."

The Professor slipped a bit, banging his elbow on the table he was sitting at with a loud thump, "I'm sorry Ash but did you just say Meganite Stones, as in the stones that allow a very select few of fully evolved Pokemon to evolve even further!?" The older man asked rapidly, in disbelief.

Ash nodded in an affirmative, "That's right Professor, I did say Meganite Stones." He replied, almost allowing a smirk to spread across his face at the older males reaction. He was sure his expression had been just as shocked and amusing to see.

Probably lost a couple of cool points with his girlfriend after that though. Ouch.

Professor Oak regained his proper seating, "Wow, Meganite stones eh?" He said, "Arceus, even just one of those things are worth a fortune because of how rare they are." The old Professor continued, "I can't tell you just how flummoxed I was when Gary turned up about a month ago with one that allowed his Blastoise to undergo Mega Evolution and now you'll quite possibly be able to attain the same thing." He breathed out, sighing in the exhilaration of an excited research prospect for his intended field.

He was the top-most expert on Pokemon Evolution in the world, after all.

Ash was about to open his mouth to continue, when what the older resident of Pallet Town said finally registered to him, "Gary's Blastoise can Mega Evolve!?" He blurted in shock, "When! How!? And what the hell was it like? That Blastoise was already a monster of a Pokemon?!" He rapidly fired one question after another.

That was crazy! There was a reason Gary was his childhood rival, and despite over-taking him as a battler these days. Gary was still registered as an Elite Level trainer just like he was. And for good reason, all of his Pokemon were powerful and well trained. That Blastoise most of all, it was a monster in battle. Back during the Silver Conference it had taken down his Bayleef, Heracross, Snorlax and Muk with ease! Four of his Pokemon that were already extremely powerful by then, and that Blastoise felled each and everyone of them easily. It had taken Charizard all he had to defeat that monster of a Blastoise.

And now it could Mega Evolve? Crazy!

Professor Oak reeled from the rapid firing of questions, but he answered admirably anyway, "Oh he found a Meganite Stone when he was studying a group of Tyrunt Pokemon that had been dug up and revived from a local mine in the Kalos Region." The elderly researcher answered, " And to say in two words, that Pokemon is Extremely Powerful. It's body changed drastically in that the two cannon's in it's shell fused together to form one gargantuan sized cannon and then it also gained two smaller cannon under it's wrists. The water attacks that Pokemon unleashes are devastating."

Wow, just wow. The Hydro Pump from that Blastoise was already power enough to pulverize a massive boulder with ease. Now it had some form of super cannon to fire that attack from? If Gary wasn't careful that Mega Blastoise could quite possibly turn someone into a bloody smear by mistake, without meaning to.

Enough basking in the awe of his once rival though, he had things to do today! And sitting around in awe that Gary had already obtained a Meganite Stone would not get them done.

Besides, by the end of this tournament he would have three of them. Because he refused to lose.

"Anyway Professor." Ash moved on, "I want to transfer over my Drapion, Monferno, Haunter, Turtwig and Staravia." The amber eyed teen stated. He'd keep Riolu with him for now, they trained extensively together with their aura. And his own aura training would go faster with him around.

Professor Oak whistled, "That's quite a batch of Pokemon to be transferring over." He replied, "Just what Pokemon do you want me to send you over then in return?" Oak questioned.

Ash didn't even need to think. He'd planned out the strongest and most well balanced team he could use for now, "I want Sceptile, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Pupitar."

Oak nodded at each and every name, but he paused a moment later and gave a sheepish laugh, "Funny you should mention Squirtle, it seems you don't have one any longer." He replied.

Ash's eyes snapped towards the Proffesor with a glare, "What? What happened to Squirtle, is he okay?" The teen questioned in worry. Why the hell was he laughing if something had happened to his Squirtle?! Couldn't he see this was no time for laughter!?

Professor Oak seemed to notice his worry and desperation because he waved his hand frantically, "No no, nothing bad happened it just seems that after meeting Gary's Blastoise in Mega Form your Squirtle felt inferior at the time, and so forced himself to evolve into a Wartortle to make up for Gary's Blastoise gaining another stage in it's evolution." The Kanto Regional Professor rushed to explain.

Ash sighed in relief. He'd almost had a minor panic attack there from sheer worry for his little buddy Squirtle – or well, not so much little buddy anymore seeing as the average Wartortle was nearly four feet tall. Going to be strange to no longer need to look down – as much anyway – at his first water pokemon.

"Anyway." Professor Oak pushed on, "That is quite the selection of Pokemon, those four are some of your most powerful." He stated, "But that would leave you with only five Pokemon, what about a sixth?" He questioned.

Ash rolled his eyes mentally, actually he would still have six but Professor Oak just didn't know anything about Mewtwo at all. "Actually Professor, I'm calling Liza right after you to get my other old buddy sent over to me." He replied to the older man's confusion.

"Ah!" Professor Oak stated in realization, then he nodded in an almost sagely manner, "I can see you want to take no chances with this tournament if you're willing to bring over that Pokemon out of all of the others you have." He stated.

Ash cracked a smirk, "Yeah, I'm going fast and hard here Professor, aiming to win all the way." He replied.

Professor Oak chuckled, "Definitely not, I can see that my boy." He said back to Ash. "Now just give me a few minutes to get all of the Pokemon ready for transport, and while I'm away you begin sending over the Pokemon you wish to transfer." The grey haired man continued. And with that said, he got up from his seat and made his way away from the video phone screen and out of the laboratory.

Ash did just that. He quickly unclipped the Pokeballs from his belt and one by one he placed them in the transporter and transferred them over to the transporter in the Oak Ranch.

It took a few minutes to transfer them all over safely, but by the time he had finished Professor Oak was already back at the screen of the video phone, "That's them all arrived safely, now stay there, I'll send on over the Pokemon you want in return." He told Ash.

"Okay Professor." Ash replied, standing ready to receive his Pokemon.

It took another couple of minutes as they repeated Ash's previous actions, but in reverse. But still, each one arrived one after the all in a flash of bright white light. All four safe and accounted for.

Picking them up, Ash clipped all of them to his silver belt before turning his attention to the Professor, "Thanks Professor Oak." He said.

Oak waved him off though, "No problem my boy, now I assume that's all you wanted?" He replied with a question.

Ash nodded, "Yeah that's all, except I'm hoping you can tell my Mom I'll call her in a few days." The Pokemon Ranger said in reply.

The elderly Professor of Pallet nodded, "Will do Ash, now take care, goodbye!" He said with a wave, before the screen went black.

Ash wasn't done yet though, he hung the phone up to get rid of the dial tone and then picked it up again to begin punching another number in on the number pad, "One more Pokemon left." He said to himself.

The phone ran for a few moments before it was picked up, and he met the familiar face of the beautiful green haired girl that was Liza, "Hey!" She greeted with a big smile.

Ash smiled right back at her, "Hey, have you got him ready?" He questioned.

She giggled, "Oh yeah, you wouldn't believe just how excited he was when you called and asked for him." The green haired girl replied, "He's been getting really bored over here, none of the Charizard around here can keep up with him at all anymore, and the only amusement he's been getting as of late is putting the newbie and arrogant Charizard in their place when they try to act tough." She continued to say, giggling all the more.

Ash chuckled himself, it sounded quite amusing to him. But she was wrong about the not believing just how excited his Charizard was, because he and Charizard were very similar and that's why they got along so well. He guessed he was just as excited, if not more so than Charizard to meet up with him again.

"Alright then, I'm sending him over now. Standby for transport." Liza told him. She disappeared from the screen for a few moments, and then beside him at the transporter in a flash of brilliant white light. The Pokeball of his Charizard appeared.

He grabbed it quickly with his hand and held the Pokeball up to the screen to show Liza, "Transferred safely Liza." He told her with a grin.

Liza grinned happily right back at him. They held each others gazes for a few moments before she tossed him a wave, "Don't be a stranger now Ashy, bye!" She big him goodbye. And with that her screen, like Professor Oak's, went black.

Ash grinned, he was quite fond of Liza, and she of him. They bonded as friends over the budding relationship their Charizard's. But Charizard, in the end, terminated his relationship with Charla. It seemed she had been wanting to settle down and have eggs, but Charizard couldn't to it. He didn't want to give up going out with Ash to battle strong opponents around the world.

Charizard, like Ash himself, was in love with battling. They practically lived for the rush, and adrenaline running through their veins from a tough battle, as well as their mutual desire to become the best. Ash to become a Pokemon Master, and Charizard to not only become the strongest Charizard in history, but the strongest Pokemon of all. A legend among legends.

Until then, Charizard could not settle down in a relationship with Charla and have a litter of Charmander with her. One day possibly, but not any time soon at least.

Having received all of the Pokemon he needed, Ash smiled to himself and began making his way out of the Pokemon Center to go and sign up for the Meganite Tournament.

As he went though, he connected his aura to the beings inside the Pokeballs he'd just received and felt a rush of happiness as a very familiar set of warm signatures flared up in the back of his mind.

He turned his head to the Pokemon on his shoulder, "There's no way we can lose!" He declared.

Pikachu smirked back at him, pumping a small yellow fist and allowing his red cheeks to sparkle slightly with a powerful yellow electricity, "Pi, Pikapi!" He cried right with him.

With the team of six he'd assembled for this tournament, there was no way they could lose! It would take the hardest efforts of the Elite Four themselves to stand in their way.

* * *

Ash had to admit. He was damn impressed with the arena they would be battling in. It was contained within a massive semi-circular stadium that looked like it could contain at least a good few thousand people with ease.

The battlefield itself was made up of three segments. On the far end of the battlefield, there was a lush grassy greenery area that was filled with quite a few tree's, and then further up in the middle of the battlefield there was a desolate rocky area and finally cutting off the stadium from becoming a full circle was a large and beautiful deep blue lake.

It was a battlefield designed to let almost all Pokemon fight to the best of their abilities. And the good news, was that he had a team of Pokemon that was designed to make full use of these areas.

Bulbasaur and Sceptile would easily be able to use the grass area to their advantage, Wartortle would be right at home in the lake, Pupitar would hold the advantage in a rocky terrain, Charizard would dominate the sky and Pikachu could battle on almost any terrain. He had trained Pikachu to use his full speed in almost any area.

He moved on though, he could gawk at the arena later tonight when he came back for his battle. For now he still had a ton of things to do.

He walked away from the battlefield and headed inside the arena, straight out towards the front desk.

Ash reached the front desk within a few minutes of walking, the place was busy and full of people huddling around. Thankfully, the front desk was unoccupied.

As he made his way over towards the desk, he was surprised to find quite a few people muttering angrily or the like.

He wondered what had their panties in a bunch?

Whatever, it wasn't his problem. He had a tournament to register for. He smiled at the brown haired receptionist behind the desk, she was rather pretty to look at and was wearing some form of green uniform.

She returned his smile with one of her own, showing off rows of white teeth, "Hello, how can I help you?" She questioned politely.

"I'm here to register for the Meganite Tournament." He replied.

She nodded at that, looking him over from head to toe. "Are you sure you meet the requirements to compete?" She asked dubiously. Eyeing him up and down with a frown.

Ash frowned to himself, "Requirements?" He questioned.

He hadn't heard about any requirements needed for this tournament. He thought it was a tournament open to all.

"Yes." The receptionist replied, "Well, there's really only one requirement and that is that all applicants for this tournament be qualified as Elite Level trainers." The brunnete revealed to him.

When those words washed through Ash's ears, he grinned. So that was why so many of these people were angry. They couldn't enter. He laughed internally, few Trainers a year managed to become an Elite level Trainer.

It took skills built up by years of experience and extremely powerful and well trained Pokemon.

"Well, that's fine then." Ash replied to her revelation. He reached into his back pocket and pulled his Pokedex out, flipping it open as he did so and pressing a blue button located up beside the screen. The screen flared from a blank black screen into a forest green color, and the robotic voice of the Pokedex began speaking, " _Hello_ , _I am Dexert a Pokedex programmed by Professor Samuel J. Oak of Pallet Town – Kanto to act as identification and an information guide for Elite Pokemon Trainer; Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town – Kanto_."

He turned it off and put it back away in his pocket. He shot his grin towards the receptionist, "That proof enough?" He inquired.

She smiled back at him, "Yes, that will do. Just allow me to register you now." She replied, and began typing away at the computer sitting to her side. It took her a few moments, but finally she returned her attention to him and her smile stretched a bit, "That is all your information entered, you are applicant number #29." The brown haired receptionist told him.

Ash whistled, "How many people are going to be competing?" He questioned.

"32 in total." She answered, "We will close down registration for the tournament after three more Elite Level Trainers have signed up to compete." She continued.

Ash had to hold back another whistle. Damn, he was applicant number 29. That meant he was shaving it a bit close here. If he had been even another hour late he probably wouldn't have even been allowed to compete.

Damn, that would have put all of his plans down the crapper.

He smiled internally to himself though. Thank Arceus he'd made him and Dawn get up extra early this morning or else there was no way in hell they would have made it in time for him to register in the Meganite Tournament to whoop some ass, take some names and walk off with those Meganite stones.

He flashed another smile to the receptionist, "Thank you." He began her, "Now if you'll excuse me I'm quite busy at the moment, I've got a few errands I have to run before the tournament starts later." The amber eyed teen continued, "Goodbye."

The older woman behind the desk nodded, flashing him another polite smile in return for his own, "It was no problem." She replied, "Good luck with the tournament!"

He nodded in reply, "Thank you." He thanked her, and with that and a wave tossed over his shoulder he was on his way again making his way out of the building.

Now all he had to do was go defeat the Eterna City Gym Leader – Gardenia if he remembered right – and then pick up the supplies he needed for the extensive training program he had devised for his Pokemon and he was good to go, ready to compete in the tournament without any distractions to get in his way.

* * *

As he made his way out of the building, he turned the corner of the building and was about to walk around it when his aura senses blared to life.

With them guiding them on instinct, he just barely managed to step out of the way of a tall woman before he bumped straight into her. As it was, he stumbled a bit on his foot.

With all the aura – life – signatures around him, it was murder on his mind to pinpoint any specific one of them besides those he was familiar with.

"Ah, I'm sorry about that." He said to the woman, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. It was a habit he picked up from somewhere, he just wasn't sure where.

The woman chuckled in reply, her voice light and dare he say it? Almost seductive sounding. It was a throaty sound, one that sent a shiver down his spine, "No harm done, just watch out in case you hurt yourself next time." She said in return.

Ash chuckled at that. Looking up, a reply was on the tip of his lips when he caught sight of just who he was talking to. She was tall, easily a good six feet and towered over even him who was quite tall for his age. She had a beautiful face, framed by a mane of long glossy blonde hair that shone slightly in the sun and had a set of two black accessories on each side.

She wore a pair of black heels, slightly covered by a pair of long grey trousers that didn't hide at all just how long her legs looked, and finally over her torso was a variation of a black waist coat, except this had long sleeves that ended in a puffy and black soft fur like fabric and the bottom tail of the coat didn't end until slightly below her knee's, the top of it left open slightly to show the deep cleavage of a rather large and round pair of breasts.

Ash felt his mouth go dry. It took him a good few moments to regain his composure, "You're...You're Cynthia Shirona!" He finally managed to blurt out.

The woman, Cynthia chuckled in reply, "That I am." She replied, "But, since you know my name it's only polite that you tell me yours." The blonde haired woman continued.

Ash shook his head. He so would not fanboy out on this woman. Sure she was the Champion Master of an entire Region, but he had met three before her already! He'd already met Lance, Steven, Wallace and even Alder once when he had paid Professor Oak a visit.

"I'm Ash Ketchum." He replied. He pushed on though, determined to not lose any face in front of a woman that he would definitely one day, without fail, defeat in a battle, "I'd heard you were in Eterna City Cynthia, but I had no idea why exactly." He said. Phrasing the question in a way that, hopefully would not sound as if he was being some nosy fanboy that was poking into her business.

"Oh, I'm actually here to study the ancient statues of the Legendary Pokemon Dialga and Palkia." She replied. Ash nodded, seemingly accepting the answer. But in truth, thanks to Aaron he had already knew this.

He stopped nodding though, when she continued, "And to also compete in the Meganite Tournament being hosted here."

He couldn't help it. He winced. He so was not expecting that, and now his chances of winning had dropped dramatically.

Still though, he soldiered on admirably. This was the kind of challenge he was looking for.

Aaron was still a stupid moron though. He could have informed him of Cynthia competing as well. And here he thought he wasn't a grass headed twat like Drew.

"Really?" Ash questioned. There was another few questions niggling at the back of his head that he wanted answered. He was damn curios.

When she nodded, he pushed forward to ask the other question on his mind, "But why would you want to compete? You're one of the most powerful Trainers in the world, why would you need the Meganite Stones?" The amber eyed teen inquired.

Cynthia shook her head, "You would think so." She replied, her voice turning wistful, "But, it is my duty as the Champion Master of Sinnoh to continue to surpass my and my Pokemon's limit, if I didn't I wouldn't last long as the Champion Master and would be surpassed one day soon." She continued.

"To hold on to my title, I must continue to improve and strive to be the very best I can be." Cynthia finished, her grey eyes burning with an inner fire that was all too familiar to Ash.

It was a look that he saw every time he looked at himself in a mirror.

He smirked, "You can keep ascending your limits all you want, it's not gonna stop me." The raven haired teen replied, "In fact, I relish the thought of it so that when I beat you and the rest of the Regional Champions around the regions, not one person can contest to me being the very best Pokemon Trainer in the world."

He would be a Pokemon Master, but not just any Pokemon Master. He would be thee Pokemon Master, a master amongst masters!

Cynthia chuckled, "I look forward to you challenging me then, Ash." She promptly returned the challenge behind the words.

Ash couldn't help the adrenaline flooding his veins. But sadly, as much as he would love to get into it right now with Cynthia and take her on, he still had his errands to run.

"Then I'll see you in the finals of the Meganite Tournament, just make sure not to lose." He all but taunted.

"I won't, don't worry about that." The blonde haired woman replied, "Just make sure you hold on to your end of the bargain then."

Ash snorted, giving her a wave and continuing on his way. Nobody was going to stop him and his Pokemon from reaching those finals.

* * *

Cynthia watched the young teen walk away towards whatever destination he intended on going to. So that was Ash Ketchum huh? There were quite a few rumours about that boy floating around. In fact, besides the Elite Four of the Region, he was pretty much the golden boy of Kanto.

A supposed prodigy in all things Pokemon. A young Trainer so skilled with Pokemon so powerful that he'd taken on and defeated multiple Legendary Pokemon.

And the fact that the jacket he was wearing completely answered for her if the rumour about him being the youngest Pokemon Ranger in history was true.

"What an interesting boy." She mused to herself.

She couldn't wait to battle the teen. He would surely give her an intense challenge one day.

* * *

The interior of the gym reminded him quite a bit of the Bug-type Gym ran by Bugsy over at Azaela Town in the Johto Region.

It was one big wide open space filled to the brim with plant life. The flooring was covered entirely by freshly cut green grass, and all around the inside garden like area were a multitude of large and healthy tree's.

He was led straight through the tree's and out into an open space in the very center of the room. His guide, a black haired woman in a blue tracksuit, proceeded to walk over to a woman he caught sight of lounging in the middle of the clearing.

"Gardenia, you have a challenger." His guide stated aloud.

At once, the lounging woman jumped straight up her feet, a beaming smile upon her face. She had a mushroom shaped style of hair, held up slightly by a black headband. She was wearing a green poncho with a short and tight black shirt underneath that bared her midriff to him, covering from her hips to just above her knees was a pair of brown cargo shorts and then she had a pair of dark green boots covering her feet.

"Great!" The now revealed to be Gardenia chirped happily, "I was getting seriously bored with nothing to do today, a battle is just what I need." She stated, once again quite happily.

She met Ash's eyes with her own, "So kid, hows a two on two sounds to ya'?" She questioned.

"That's fine." The amber eyed teen answered with a nod.

Gardenia nodded back before she turned towards his guide, "Amelia can you referee?" She asked the black haired woman.

Said woman nodded, "Of course, it's my job after all." Amelia replied.

She walked off to the side and stood upon some kind of white stand that Ash just at that moment noticed.

Amelia raised her arm into the air, "This will be a two on two battle between Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town and the Eterna City Gym leader Gardenia, furthermore only the challenger will be allowed to switch out their Pokemon for another." She called out.

Gardenia grinned over towards him, pulling a Pokeball out of her pocket. "Okay Ash, I'll start things off." She stated. She threw the Pokeball into the air and released the Pokemon inside in a burst of silvery white light.

In front of her, appearing as she caught the Pokeball once again was a Turtwig. That was fine with Ash, he already knew the only Pokemon he would need for this battle.

"Alright then." He said, turning his head towards the Pokemon perched atop his shoulder, "You're up Pikachu." He told the small eletric rodent Pokemon.

Pikachu nodded in response, leaping into a flip and landing nimbly infront of his trainer.

Gardenia frowned at him, ' _Doesn't he know how much a disadvantage an Electric-type Pokemon like Pikachu is at against a Grass-type Pokemon like my Turtwig_?'

No matter, that was his problem.

"Tackle!" She ordered promptly.

Her Turtwig short forth like a rocket. Her Turtwig was different from the average one, instead of training it to utilize it's defensive properties like most others, Gardenia had gone a completely different route and worked on speed.

There was no Turtwig as fast as hers in the world. And even as fast as it was, the little guy was a defensive powerhouse as well because of how old and experienced he was compared to the average Turtwig.

That was why she couldn't help but gape in disbelief at what happened next.

* * *

Ash had to admit, he was impressed by the speed of this Turtwig, even his own Turtwig couldn't keep up with this one.

Impressive, but it still couldn't come close to Pikachu.

So when it was within five feet of Pikachu, and closing in rapidly. He issued a simple, two worded order.

"Iron Tail."

By the time Turtwig came within striking distance, it was already far too late. Faster than even Ash's aura enhanced eye-sight could track. Pikachu's tail erupted with a bright silvery white energy and he batted the rushing Turtwig back to where it came from, with a little extra added on.

Turtwig's charge halted like a bike ramming into a concrete wall. And then, the small Grass-type shot backwards like a rocket, a blur to the human eye.

It shot right past Gardenia and crashed harshly into a tree. The tree cracked in half from the force of the impact and toppled over, and then Turtwig promptly fell to the grassy floor completely unconscious and unable to battle any longer

The entire gym was silent, both woman of the Eterna City Gym in a completely stupefied silence and Ash himself just allowing them to do so.

Amelia shakily raised an arm, "T-the first round goes t-to the challenger and P-Pikachu..." She managed to stutter out, her voice flat and letting everyone else know just how baffled she was by this turn of events.

Gardenia herself was in a completely different kind of shocked.

She hadn't even seen it happen. All she saw was a blur, one second Turtwig was upon Pikachu intending to plough right into it with a powerful head on charge, and the next her Pokemon was behind her and completely unable out cold.

She instinctively lifted her Pokeball and recalled her Turtwig. Just what the hell happened right there?!

Shaking her head, Gardenia lifted her next Pokeball up, "Okay then!" she shouted, "Let's see you try that again, Let's go Roserade!" And with that, she released her next Pokemon. Roserade, the fully evolved form of Budew and the next stage upwards from Roselia.

Roserade was a bipedal Pokémon with an appearance that incorporated features of roses and what looked like the decorative dress of a masquerade. It had hair made of white rose petals and a leafy green cape with a yellow collar-like bangle on its neck. The cape pattern reached toward the back of its head in spiky, sepal-like extensions on the hair. It had a dark-green mask over its red, yellow-lidded eyes. The lower portion of its face was light green and it held a bouquet in each hand, a red one in its right hand and blue in its left. Its limbs and underside were light green color and its feet ended with yellow colored tips.

"Roserade, use Magical Leaf!" The Grass-type Gym Leader commanded quickly.

She would not make the same mistake as she did before. She would attack from a distance so that Pikachu's speed wouldn-

She was cut off before she could even finish her thought process on her strategy to defeat Ash's Pikachu.

After Roserade thrust both arms and fired off a barrage of leaf shaped disks of green energy at Pikachu. The small rodent Pokemon had responded in kind and fired off a massive yellow card of electricity to meet the attack head on.

The arc of electricity met the leaf shaped disks of energy head on, and ripped straight through the attack as if it were paper.

The attack continued on, and in the blink of an eye, before Roserade could even think to dodge, the powerful wave of electricity washed over it's form and sent it falling backwards onto the grassy ground below it.

The fully evolved form of Budew was charred black in some places when the arc of electrical power died down to reveal the Pokemon. Not to mention with so much electricity inside of its body, the Roserade, even unconscious, could not stop itself from twitching and spasming every moment or so.

Silence once again rang throughout the clearing within the indoor garden – gym – the two female occupants of the Eterna City gym could once again no longer even comprehend just what the hell happened. Twice she'd lost to that Pikachu, both of her very strongest Pokemon taken down in the blink of an eye and with one attack each.

It was a mind fu-boggling experience, and she couldn't form words to even describe just what she felt in regards to that battle.

Most likely, she mused distantly, that she would feel ashamed for having lost so easily. But for now, she was still too stupefied to care.

Ash though was growing annoyed with all the silence, "Oi, can I get my Gym Badge now? I've got errands I need to run." He barked.

He rolled his eyes as neither responded. He should have expected something like this. After all, it wasn't everyday that a Trainer as powerful as a Gym Leader got defeated so thoroughly.

But what else could he have done? He had errands to run!


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm currently, at this very moment streaming. I'll be streaming for hours, since I can't go out for new years since I'm stuck babysitting. So, if any of you have questions or just want to talk to me, feel free to swing by my twitch stream and watch.**

 **Although, I can't find my microphone so it'll be just text replies. The link is on my profile.**

* * *

It took a good long while, and a hell of a lot of walking to different places around the entirety of Eterna City, but he'd finally completed his list of errands.

He'd signed up for the Meganite Tournament. He'd headed over to the Eterna City Gym, took on Gardenia and beat her in record time to receive the Forest Badge, leaving her a stupefied mess in the process.

And just now, he'd finally collected the last of the supplies he'd needed for the intense training regime he'd devised for his Pokemon. The Medicinal supplies and berries were easily obtained, the shops that sold them were in fact right next to each other.

But the items he needed to obtain, an almost entirely different set for each and everyone of his Pokemon, had taken a while, and a lot of effort. He'd had to visit at least twenty different shops all over the city to find them.

But finally, he was done.

Walking out of the last shop empty handed, he looked down to the Poketch attached to his wrist.

 _19:17_

He whistled, he'd been out running his errands for six hours already. Good thing he'd paid a bit extra for all of the items he'd bought today to be delivered to him at the Pokemon Center tomorrow morning or else he'd definitely be late for the beginning of the Meganite Tournament.

Ash looked to Pikachu on his right shoulder, "You ready buddy?" He asked his small yellow furred companion.

Pikachu nodded, sparking his cheeks and pumping a fist, "Pi, pikapi pi, Pika Pi!" The Electric-type Pokemon replied heatedly.

Ash chuckled, his aura so in tune with Pikachu picking up the blazing determination and excitement coursing through his starter Pokemon.

"Alright then, let's head on over to the stadium then and meet up with Dawn." The teen stated in return.

* * *

It took him and Pikachu at least another good ten minutes to arrive at the entrance to the stadium. Thankfully, Dawn's aura and life energy being so familiar to him meant that he could pick her out in a crowded area with ease.

And the stadium was incredibly crowded, hundreds, maybe thousands of people were steadily pouring in through the entrance and heading towards the arena to take their seats for the upcoming battles to come.

He found his blue haired girlfriend standing at one of the entrances over to the far right of the stadium.

Walking straight up to her with an ease and gracefulness earned through rigorous training he reached her side and gently slipped his hand into hers and tugged her with him out of the crowd and to a few feet away, which was quite a bit calmer without the crowd stampeding through.

She turned to him and a bright smile overtook her pretty features when she caught sight of him. Leaning up she placed a light kiss on his lips and gripped his hand back with her own, "So how did your Gym Battle go?" The blue haired Coordinator asked curiously.

Ash smirked at her, "It didn't take long at all, Pikachu took both of Gardenia's Grass-types down with ease." He replied to her question.

Dawn blinked at that, "Wow, you are really serious about this tournament." She commented, "I've never even seen you use Pikachu in an actual legit battle."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, it's because of those Meganite Stones that I'm so fired up." He told her, "Even just one of them is worth enough money to pay for a small cruise liner." The raven haired teen continued to comment.

Dawn choked a bit on her own saliva, "Are you serious!?" The blue haired girl questioned in complete shock. The disbelief evident in her tone of voice.

How could she not be? Just one of those stones were enough to allow someone to live comfortably without work for a good twenty years, at least!

It was completely ludicrous to her. Wow, just wow. It seemed that the occupation of being a high level Trainer was where the money was at.

Good thing her boyfriend was such a good teacher then, she supposed.

Ash nodded once again, "Yeah, but never mind that for now." He replied, "Have you got got a seat yet for up in the stands or do you want to watch the matches from down in the contestant waiting room with me?" The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger asked of her.

Dawn shook her head, "Oh, no need Ash." She replied, "I met up with Zoey and Nando earlier at the Pokemon Center and when I told them you were competing here tonight they decided to come watch with me to wish you luck and root for you to win."

Ash processed the given information and nodded. Nando and Zoey were trustworthy. He winced internally at thinking along those lines. Ever since he'd opened up his senses with aura, he'd been able to – for a lack of a better phrase – feel out just what kind of person people were at heart.

He'd been a lot more optimistic about people before then. But after finding out just how truly evil people could really be with just a glance, he had become quite jaded to the humanity of people. And so, he wasn't too keen on letting Dawn sit in the stands surrounded by thousands of people alone.

"That's good." He replied. Still though, best to cover all his bases. "Here." He stated, pulling the necklace that held Mewtwo's Pokeball up over his head and handing to to her, "You keep him for now, lest I be tempted if I come up against an opponent that is to much for me."

Dawn looked at him dubiously for a moment. Hadn't he been resolute in his decision to not use a legendary Pokemon like Mewtwo in a battle? So what had changed? "Well, okay." The blue haired girl answered accepting the necklace and Pokeball combo, before slipping it over her head and down to her neck.

Ash leaned over and pecked her on the lips. Pulling back he flashed her a small smile, disentangling his larger hand from her own as he did so, "I've gotta head on to the contestant waiting room, so you should head to your seat in the stands for now with Nando and Zoey." The amber eyed teen told her.

Dawn beamed at him, nodding towards what he told her, "Yeah, I will." She replied. She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss as well, brushing her soft lips against his before pulling back. "Good Luck!" The blue haired girl chirped before turning on her pink booted heels and walking off into the stadium building.

Ash watched her go, for once his eyes managing not to stray towards her swaying hips and posterior as he did so.

He reached out with his mind towards the Pokeball hanging around his blue haired girlfriends neck, ' _Protect her if anything goes wrong_?'

' **With my life, if need be**.' Was the immediate response. Neither truly expected anything to happen with so many people around to act as other targets, but Ash didn't exactly have great luck.

That was all the answer Ash needed though to ease the worry from his mind, he could trust in Mewtwo. And with that, he turned on his own heels and headed towards the contestant waiting room to await the first round of battles. And his first win of the tournament.

* * *

Ash, despite himself, was impressed with the competition. But then, how could he not be? When every single competitor in the Meganite Tournament was an Elite-level trainer such as him, or a even higher on the totem pole.

After arriving at the waiting room, he took up his place at the very back of the room in one of the corners. He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes closed as he awaited the battle portion of the tournament to start.

He'd received his battle selection upon entering the room, and it seemed he would be participating in the sixth match.

It hadn't taken all that long before the battles started, but what interested him the most were the rules.

The rules and type of the battle were decided by the two Trainers. It was the first time he'd heard of in history that a situation such as this had occur in a competitive tournament.

It was interesting to say the least.

The first couple of battles were pretty good, but nothing that impressed him all that much. Finally, though the next two battles to occur really had his intention.

The third battle of the night was Cynthia against a large muscled man in a karate gi who specialized in Fighting-type Pokemon, if his choices were anything to go by.

He hadn't lasted very long at all. He and Cynthia decided on a single Trainer double battle. The muscular man had chosen a Machamp and Hariyama. But they were felled quickly and precisely by Cynthia's own combination of Spiritomb and Gastrodon.

And right after her, surprise surprise, was Paul. And from what Ash saw of him during the battle he really had taken his advice to heart and improved drastically from when he'd last seen him back at the Rock-type Pokemon Gym in Oreburgh City.

He and his opponent decided on a three on three Pokemon battle. And Paul literally blew his competition away by losing not a single Pokemon in the entire battle.

His Magmortar had taken down his opponents Tauros easily, and then the next round was Paul's Electivire against his opponents Aggron. It was touch and go for a few minutes, but in the end Electivire came through for the win by smashing a Cross Chop attack straight into the Aggron's face after absorbing a Thunder attack from it to activate Electivire's Motor Drive ability.

And then finally they came down to the third exchange of the night with Paul's Torterra against his opponent's Gyarados.

The fight didn't last long at all. In fact, it was over in one single blow. Paul had ordered his Torterra to use Frenzy Plant at full power, and the Gyarados didn't stand a chance. It hadn't made it over to the lake yet, so it didn't have the graceful movements needed with it's large body to dodge the gargantuan tree roots that sprung up from the earth and delivered a barrage of extremely heavy and powerful blows.

The poor beast had been out cold before it even hit the ground. But in the end, it wasn't the battling skills that made him believe Paul had taken his advice. No, the other teen was already an extremely powerful Trainer with a ton of experience already.

What had caught his eye was when after each and every win his Pokemon managed, he would congratulate them in some way, be it with a nod, a smirk or something else.

It told him that Paul was on the right track. With a better connection with his Pokemon, his Pokemon in turn would trust him more and therefore work harder in battles for him.

It was a simple concept. What was loved, will love in return. It was so simple, yet so very few people actually understood it.

The fifth battle of the night really wasn't anything special after seeing both Paul and Cynthia battle. It was just two guys having their Alakazam and Absol trade powerful attack one after the other with each other. There was zero strategy at all being displayed throughout the entire battle.

How did these moron's even pass the test needed to become Elite Level trainer's with pathetic skills such as those?

He shook his head, it was probably just a bitch fight between two rich kids that had bribed their way through the test.

In the end, the guy with the Absol managed to outlast the Alakazam, albeit barely. And once again Ash shook his head, according to the tournament bracket that kid would be his opponent in the next round if – no, _when_ he won his first battle of the tournament.

Finally, the familiar voice of the announcer spoke through the speakers to announce the next match, " **Alright ladies and gentlemen** , **hold on to your seats because this next match will be a doozy**! **Up next we have the Tower Tycoon Palmer from Twinleaf Town here in the Sinnoh Region**! **And his opponent will be Pokemon Ranger Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town over in the Kanto Region** , **and get this folks! Rumours say that this teenager is a prodigy and also the youngest member of the Pokemon Ranger association in history**!"

The loud roars of the crowd escalated to an all new high after he announcement. Ash kicked off the wall with a smirk that oozed the confidence he felt. He ignored the almost cheesy way the announcer had hyped up his reputation, having long since grown used to it.

Pikachu was steady as a rock on his right shoulder, cheeks sparkling slightly with electricity made out of pure excitement. It had been a while since his little buddy had been in an actual high level battle, and he was no doubt jonesing with excitement, just begging to get out their and battle with a strong opponent once again.

Pikachu may have been lazing around quite a bit since they came to the Sinnoh Region, but just like Charizard the small Electric-type Pokemon was a lot like him in regards to personality, in fact they both influenced each other a great deal over their years of journeying together. And so, Pikachu just loved to leap into the fray of an all out, no holds barred battle.

As he made his way out of the room to begin making his way towards the battlefield, he caught the eyes of both Paul and then Cynthia. And as his eyes swept over them he gave them nods of acknowledgement which they returned in kind.

No doubt they'd be expecting a good show from him. Cynthia to see if he played a good game as well as he talked, and Paul because he probably wanted to see just how powerful a Trainer Ash really was.

Well, he would be sure to not disappoint then. He and his Pokemon were going full throttle tonight, in fact Pikachu had already lifted the limits on his own powers. He used half of his electrical charge to weigh down the other half and keep it from being max power. But tonight, that wouldn't be the case.

He couldn't risk losing out on those Meganite Stones. They were his tickets to defeating a Regional Champion within this year.

* * *

"You never told me your damned boyfriend was so famous!" Zoey shouted at Dawn, playfully pushing the girls shoulder.

Nando, on Dawn's other side, nodded, "Yes indeed, I had not known when I met you both that Ash was such a well accomplished Trainer." The handsome poet stated, "You must have learned quite a lot under him, no?"

Dawn was just about to answer, when Zoey beat her to the punch. The orange girl snorted in amusement, "Yeah I'll bet she was under him a lot." She said with a chuckle.

Dawn's face flamed red for a moment and she shoved the other girl playfully right back, "Shut up!" The blue haired girl shouted with her flush of embarrassment deepening in colour, "Don't go blurting things like that out in public!"

Nando chuckled in amusement at the byplay between the two girls, "So Dawn, just how do you believe Ash will fair in this match?" He inquired.

Dawn turned to face him, her face returning to it's normal creamy colour as she answered, "Well to be honest, I don't really know." She replied to his question, "The thing is, I've never even seem him take a battle seriously before and he's won all the ones I've seen him in with ease, yet for this tournament he's supposedly brought in a bunch of his older and more powerful Pokemon, so to give you an answer." The blue haired girl continued, "I really have no clue." Dawn finished with a sigh and a shrug.

Nando frowned thoughtfully. It seemed there was more to his young friend Ash than met the eye, just how powerful a Trainer was he?

Zoey snorted again though, "He better not disappoint, I put a ton of money on him for this." The orange haired Coordinator stated.

 _'How could I not?'_ She mused internally. After the thorough defeat he handed to her back at the Jubilife City Contest, she'd had to take a whole new look at herself and her training of Pokemon. She wouldn't state it out loud, but she admired his strength as a Trainer.

She was jealous of Dawn in a way. What a lucky girl to nab a guy like Ash. And to think, from what Dawn had told her about her meeting with Ash. It was like the guy had practically fallen into the slightly younger girls lap, free for the taking.

She shook her head with a rueful sigh. Some girls just got all the luck. Too bad she wasn't the slutty type though and Ash wasn't the type to fall for that kind of thing. With her looks, curves and naturally husky voice she was sure if she was the slutty type she could seduce almost any boy.

Still though, she wasn't that type of girl. She'd congratulate Dawn on her nabbing of Ash and then she'd help her along as was expected of close female friends. But, if Ash and Dawn ever parted from each other and went separate ways. She would definitely take up the task of attempting to get Ash to date her. He would be fair game then.

Just because she had a bit of a crush on him stemming from her admiration of his skills as a Trainer didn't mean she would try to get in the way of the relationship between Ash and his blue haired girlfriend.

Said blue haired girlfriend in question though, was peering intently down at the battlefield. Her sapphire blue eyes locked on the figure of her raven haired boyfriend as he exited the stadium and made his way over to one side of the rocky terrain, opposite of his opponent.

' _Am I going to finally see just how you are in a battle when you go all out with your Pokemon_?' Dawn wondered to herself. She couldn't explain it, but the battle between Ash and Aaron felt like he was only giving her a taste on the tip of her tongue.

She wanted to see just how deep his skill as a Trainer ran. And with this tournament, she was sure that finally Ash would be forced to reveal the limits of his skills.

If not from any of the normal competitors in the tournament, then from Cynthia herself if they met in the finals. If it came down to it, at least the Champion Master of Sinnoh would be able to force him to reveal the extent of he and his Pokemon's abilities.

* * *

Ash met his opponent in the middle of the rocky terrain part of the field. The battlefield was so vast, they Trainers would have to move with their Pokemon to keep in hearing range to issue their orders.

His opponent, Palmer, was a tall, well built man wearing a pair of orange slacks, a white undershirt and a long green trenchcoat. He had a chiselled, tanned face with kind blue eyes and a mop of long messy light blonde hair atop his head.

Upon meeting each other in the middle of the battlefield, he smiled cheerfully at Ash and held out his hand.

Ash smiled right back at him, slipping his own into into the older males and shook firmly, two calloused hands meeting in a friendly shake.

"Hey there." Palmer said, "Let's have a fun battle, eh?" The blonde man asked.

Ash nodded in reply, "Does a standard three on three sound good to you?" The raven haired teen asked in return.

Palmer shook his head, "That sounds fine Ash." He replied with a chuckle. He turned his head to the referee standing a few metres behind them, "Hey, we'll be having a standard three on three okay?" The blonde haired man called over.

The referee wearing an orange shirt and black short uniform nodded. Tapping his ear, he began speaking into an ear piece. And after a few moments he stopped, and then the speakers around the entire stadium blared to life once again.

" **Okay folks**! **After a hearty handshake both Palmer and Ash have decided to have a standard three on three battle** , **so once again make sure to grab your seats tightly or else I'm sure this battle will blow you away**!" The announcer broadcasted, much to the joy of the crowd apparently, as they roared loudly again.

Ash and Palmer gave each other a nod of good luck before separating and moving a good ten feet apart.

"On three?" Palmer called over, holding up one of his Pokeballs.

Ash smirked. "One!" The raven haired teen called back, lifting one of his own Pokeballs into the air.

Palmer chuckled once again at the eager reply, "Two!" He continued the count.

And then together they both finished with a loud dual call of, "Three!" As soon as they called it out, they tossed their Pokeballs high into the air and released the Pokemon from within.

They appeared in two separate blinding burst of silvery white light. In front of Ash, the tall form of his Sceptile, and in front of Palmer a massive and bulky Ryhperior.

Ash whistled at the sight of the beast of a Pokemon. It was actually his first time seeing one so up close and personal. He had to admit the large Pokemon really did look like a formidable opponent.

Rhyperior was the evolved form of Rhydon and held basically the same build as its predecessor, although it was taller, heavier, and had an additional horn. Rhyperior had a club-like tail and its hide was partially covered by thick orange, rocky plates. It had blade-like protrusions on its elbows and had holes in the palms of its hands which looked similar to cannon's. Rhyperior's body was a brownish-gray color as opposed to just regular gray like it's previous evolutionary forms. It also had two thick, rectangular rocks above its eyes, resembling heavy eyebrows.

" **There we go folks**! **It looks like Palmer will be leading off with his Rhyperior and Ash his Sceptile**." The commentator continued in the background, but it was mostly background noise to Ash, as both he and Sceptile stared their opponents down.

Palmer made the first move, "Alright Rhyperior, use Flamethrower!" The blonde haired man ordered, thrusting an arm into the air.

Ash made sure to quickly move a few feet the side, just as the Rhyperior lifted both it's arms and launched two large streams of orange-red flames flying towards Sceptile, midway the flames washing into each other and forming a much larger torrent of flames than before.

Ash didn't even bat an eye though, "Into the air above it, and then Bullet Seed!" He countered.

Sceptile was already high up in the air before the extra large stream of flames even flashed through his previous position. The Hoenn native Grass-type Pokemon opened his mouth and fired off a barrage of powerful yellow energy bullets towards his opponent, falling towards the larger Pokemon as he kept firing.

Rhyperior lifted it's bulky arms up and covered its face and barely let out a grunt at all as it took the barrage of super effective hits.

When Sceptile was in range, Ash acted. "Now Leaf Blade!" The raven haired Pokemon Ranger commanded sharply.

The wrist protrusions sticking out of Sceptile's arms erupted into bright green energy and flared out taking the shape of two scythe-like blades of energy.

"Harden!" Palmer shouted at the last moment before the attack hit.

Somehow, Rhyperior managed to perform the technique just before Sceptile's two bladed arms slashed down upon the dual Rock and Ground-type Pokemon's exposed torso. The ground cratered beneath it's feet, but it held strong nonetheless. The Harden technique minimizing the damage by quite a bit.

"Don't let up! Get behind it and use Leaf Storm!" Ash pushed on further. He was not letting up for a moment.

Sceptile smashed his tail onto the ground powerfully, leaving a thick indent in the rocky terrain. His large and thick tail pushed enough momentum into his body to spin gracefully around the bulky body of his opponent and land deftly behind it, the nubs on his back, once yellow, now glowing a bright green as a barrage of razor sharp leaves of energy erupted from them and slammed into Rhyperior's back one by one, in a rapid fire barrage.

Each one exploded powerfully on impact and pushed Rhyperior just a tad forward and away from Sceptile.

When he was done, the back of Rhyperior was chipped quite badly, and some small trickles of blood ran freely down the Pokemon's back. Not to mention it had ended up a good five feet away from it's previous position.

Ash cursed mentally. Even after laying a triple barrage of three powerful Grass-type attacks that were double super effective on a dual Ground and Rock-type Pokemon like Rhyperior, the large bulky Pokemon looked to have taken superficial damage at best. That Solid Rock ability was truly a much more valuable asset in battle than he had given it credit for before, if it could allow this Rhyperior to take all these attacks from Sceptile with little real damage.

Palmer took advantage of the closeness between both his and Ash's Pokemon, "Iron Tail!" He ordered next.

The behemoth of a Pokemon growled audibly and then, with a mighty swing sent it's tail soaring right at Sceptile, the large bulky tail glowing a bright silvery white with power.

Sceptile, thankfully, was both experienced and agile enough to dodge. Jumping, the bipedal Grass-type kicked off the incoming tail and used it to spring backwards into a back flip and land a good ten feet way from Rhyperior.

But by the time he landed, Palmer and Rhyperior were already putting their next attack into play, "Rock Wrecker!" The blonde haired man swiftly shouted.

Rhyperior turned towards Sceptile, small pieces of rock glowing with a red outline of energy shooting from the cannon-like holes on the middle of the large Pokemon's palms, sticking together and forming into a massive boulder outlined with powerful red energy, the enormous boulder almost being as tall and wide as Rhyperior's entire bulky frame.

With a roar, and a powerful heave the dual Ground and Rock-type Pokemon sent the massive boulder hurtling towards Sceptile at breakneck speeds.

"Drop!" Ash shouted immediately. A move as powerful as that Rock Wrecker could quite possibly even put his Sceptile out of commission if it hit head on.

Swiftly, Sceptile dropped right down, his stomach pressing flat against the ground of the battlefield. The Rock Wrecker soared right over Sceptile not a moment later, missing the Grass-type Pokemon by mere inches and soaring off into the distance, crashing harshly into the lake and sending a pillar of water splashing high up into the air.

Ash had a plan though. This wasn't the first time his Sceptile had taken on an extremely bulky Pokemon. Once upon a time his body had been taken over by the spirit of an evil king, and drawing upon his battle experience the evil spirit commanded Sceptile in a battle against Brandon. The evil king of Pokelantis had issued orders for Sceptile to attack Brandon's extremely powerful Regirock at the only weakness he could pinpoint at all on Regirock, the joints between it's legs.

Thankfully, from what Ash could see. Palmer's Rhyperior held a similar weakness in that it's small stubby legs were the least protected of all it's body.

While Sceptile was down on his stomach, he issued his counter attack, "Bullet Seed again, and aim for the knees!" The raven haired teen commanded.

Sceptile obeyed and opened his mouth, firing off another continuous barrage of small, yet powerful yellow energy bullets.

Rhyperior was far too large and bulky to dodge the attack. This type of Pokemon was built to rely on it's defensive properties to take hits and then counter attack.

The barrage of energy bullets collided quickly with both of Rhyperior's knees and began to explode on impact, one after the other.

With each hit, the Rhyperior grunted audibly and was forced to press more and more of it's weight down upon it's legs to keep it's standing position.

"Now Quick Attack!" Ash continued, he as not letting up for a moment here.

Sceptile sprang to his feet and took off like a jet, a blur to the naked eye. Even Ash himself couldn't follow Sceptile's speedy movements, he was his fastest Pokemon after Pikachu after all.

"Flash Cannon!" Palmer tried to counter.

Rhyperior lifted it's cannon-like arms once again and blasted two large silvery beams of energy that, like the Flamethrower attacks before, merged together to form one massive blast of powerful silver coloured energy.

It was for naught though, the blur that was Sceptile ducked right to the side of the blast and continued onwards without a single obstacle in his way.

Finally, it was time. "Leaf Blade the joints behind it's knee's and then use it's head for leverage to jump into the air!" Ash issued forth next. The young Pokemon ranger planned to win this within the next two moves.

Sceptile obeyed and acted out on the commands of his Trainer before the Rhyperior even realized what was going on. With the speed granted to him by Quick Attack, Sceptile got behind Rhyperior in a crouching position in the blink of an eye, two glowing green scythe-like blades of energy once again protruding from his wrists as he arrived, and with two powerful slashes behind the leg joints on Rhyperior, he brought the behemoth to it's knees.

Rhyperior crashed harshly into the rocky terrains. The massive Pokemon's knees having given out beneath it from the two simultaneous Leaf Blade attacks.

But Sceptile wasn't finished there, next he jumped up atop the Rhyperior's small armoured head and pushed off with all the strength in his powerful and well muscled legs.

The force of the push sent Sceptile soaring high into the air above the dual Ground and Rock-type Pokemon, and said dual type Pokemon to crash face first into the rocky terrain face first.

Ash smirked, this was it! "Now Solarbeam!" The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger shouted up to his airborn Pokemon.

Up above in the air, soaring high above Rhyperior's prone form. The yellow sphere's on Sceptile's back began to glow, becoming brighter and brighter with each passing moment.

Finally, his momentum gave out beneath him after a few seconds and Sceptile began to fall back towards the earth. But before the Pokemon even got halfway down, he unleashed a massive beam of pure blinding white energy that shot down like a bolt of lightning and ploughed into Rhyperior's prone form on the ground with a massive explosion.

The explosion so loud and powerful, it drowned it the loud roars of the crowd up in the stands. And kicked up a massive plume of hazy black smoke.

Sceptile used the momentum he got from firing the Solarbeam attack and flipped backwards through the air and landed nimbly in front of Ash in a crouching position. Yellow eyes staring intently at the plume of hazy smoke. Watching for any movement within as he, along with his Trainer, tried to discern if the immensely durable Pokemon they had just battled had finally fallen.

Finally, after nearly a full minute of waiting in baited breath. The plume of smoke drifted away with the wind to reveal Rhyperior.

The large bulky Pokemon's body had been hit so hard by the Solarbeam that were was actually a good sized crater beneath it's body from the impact.

The majority of the armor on it's back had been blasted off, and bruising was in abundance upon it's rocky grey-brown skin, and to add to the Pokemon's already deeply bruised back were a series of gashes that were flowing freely with blood.

Ash caught sight of the referee talking into his ear piece while looking over the Pokemon from afar for any signs of consciousness.

There were none, it seemed the final blast of Solarbeam had been to much for it.

" **There you have it folks**! **After an exciting and fast paced battle** , **Sceptile has managed to defeat Rhyperior by unleashing a devastating Solarbeam attack upon it**!" The commentator announced, much to the roars and cheers of excitement from the crowd.

Palmer lifted his Pokeball and returned his Pokemon in a beam of red energy, "Well Ash, it seems like the rumours of your skill as a Trainer and your Pokemon's power were not exaggerated in the least." The blonde haired man commented, "It was incredibly impressive of you to pinpoint my Rhyperior's point of weakness so quickly, and to take advantage of that weakness within moments takes the sharpened mind of a great Trainer." He continued, exchanging Rhyperior's Pokeball for another.

"But this next Pokemon won't be so easily defeated!" Palmer exclaimed, tossing the Pokeball up into the air off to the far side of the battlefield and releasing the Pokemon within into the deep lake, "Let's go Milotic!"

In a flash it materialized swimming atop the calm blue water of the lake. A large and beautiful Milotic.

Milotic, like Gyarados was a sea-serpent body-type Pokemon. It's body was mostly cream in coloration, with red eyes and three black dots down its neck. The top of its head was long, with a point at the end, and long, thin red 'eyebrows' extending from above its eyes and thicker, also red-colored hair-like fins draping from the sides of it's head. Its lower tail was covered in blue and pink scales, with striations of black, and four large scales, blue with red spots in the middle, overlapping at the tip of the tail to look like a fan.

Where as Gyarados embodied a fierce and powerful like monstrous sea-serpent. Milotic embodied a breathtakingly beautiful counterpart to it.

It was impressive, Ash mused. Milotic were very rare and hard to raise Pokemon, in some cases even more than Gyarados were. It took a lot of love and skill to train a Feebas to evolve into a Milotic. That, or you could pay through the teeth for a prism scale that was worth more than a lot of people made in a year.

What was obvious to Ash though, was that since he chose Milotic he must have had a plan to deal with Grass-type's like Sceptile. Possibly an Ice-type attack?

No matter, he decided. He lifted up the hand the contained Sceptile's Pokeball, "Return, Sceptile." He said, returning the Pokemon back within the confines of his Pokeball.

He didn't show it, but Ash could tell that Sceptile was feeling fatigued. Launching a multitude of high powered attacks within the span of a couple of minutes would even tire out his Pokemon.

"We'll see about that Palmer!" Ash called back over to his blonde haired opponent. The raven haired teen then looked to the Pokemon on his shoulder, "You're up buddy." He told his starter Pokemon.

"Pika!" The small yellow Pokemon cried in excitement, launching straight into the air from his previous position on Ash's shoulder and landing quickly on the battlefield, a small ways away from the start of the lake.

Palmer started things off again, being the first of the two to go on the offensive, "Milotic, Hydro Pump!" The blonde haired man shouted.

His Milotic gave a hauntingly beautiful cry and opened it's mouth, within a split second firing a massive pressurized cannon-like torrent of nonstop water.

Pikachu was off like a bullet before the attack even made it half way towards him. The cannon like blast of water blasting into the ground beneath the small Electric-type and pulverizing the ground it impacted with ease.

"Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded in return.

"Pika!" Pikachu cried as he ran towards the lake, his small body erupting with a bright blue aura of electricity that was unleashed streaking through the air towards Milotic in the blink of an eye.

Milotic managed to submerge itself quickly though, dodging the massive arc of blue coloured electricity by the skin of it's teeth.

Palme decided that now that his Pokemon came back up and Pikachu closed in on the lake, that it was time to make a counter attack of his own.

"Alright Milotic, wash that Pikachu away with Surf!" The Tower Tycoon commanded.

Moments later, the lake pulled back and rose up high in a mssive tidal wave that towered over fifty feet easily. Milotic riding at the very top of the massive wave of water as it sped towards Pikachu.

Palmer was surprised though, when Ash didn't order Pikachu to make a quick escape from the rapidly approaching tidal wave.

No, instead he attacked. "Volt Tackle straight through it!" The raven haired teenager commanded of his starter Pokemon.

Pikachu obeyed, his small body erupting into a massive cyan blue aura of crackling electricity, so intense that Pikachu's body was little more than a black outline in the middle as it charged towards the massive tidal wave.

"Pika! Pika! Pika! Pika! Pika!" The small Electric-type chanted with each step, but after the fifth step, Palmer couldn't believe his eyes.

Pikachu, massive electrical aura of power and all, disappeared completely from his sight. He couldn't believe his eyes, where had it gone? Could it teleport!?

He heard a loud cry of shock from his Milotic and swivelled his head around towards the massive wave, and his jaw dropped as he was just in time to catch sight of the Pikachu, with it's massive cyan blue electrical aura appear in mid-air right in front of the wave created by Milotic's Surf attack and pierce straight through the attack, blowing away the energy that formed the attack with it's own and sending his Milotic careening out of the air to crash land harshly onto the rocky terrain with a powerful crash.

As his Milotic cried out in pain, Palmer could do nothing but stare in complete and utter shock at the Pikachu as it allowed it's electrical aura to drop and landed easily on it's paws, no worse for wear at all.

That couldn't be possible, could it? Surely that Pikachu was not fast enough to travel the distance of a good thirty feet in the blink of an eye? He'd never heard of a Pokemon so fast!

Still though, he better do something fast or he was going to lose here!

"Milotic, Twister!" Palmer commanded his Pokemon.

Milotic let loose it's hauntingly beautiful cry once again as it regained it's full height. The Water-type Pokemon lifted it's scale covered tail and swiped it harshly through the air, conjuring and hurtling forth a truly gargantuan attack.

The Twister attack was made up up a vertically spinning torrential winds that spun into a hurricane like formation a good fifteen feet by fifteen feet, and the attack was sent soaring at Pikachu faster than any lower levelled Pokemon could ever hope to evade.

Ash was calm though. It was time to wrap this one up as well, too bad for Palmer he had picked a very bad choice of Pokemon to battle against Pikachu, "Triple Extreme Iron Tail combo." The amber eyed teen stated calmly, in an almost serene way.

The large twister of powerful winds passed over Pikachu's position within moments, and Palmer held his breath. Had they actually hit?

No.

His eyes widened in panic when Pikachu literally appeared out of mid-air in front of his Milotic, hurtling out of a spin and swinging around with a shining white energy encased tail. With a small twist, Pikachu smashed the tail straight into Milotic's cheek, and the massive sea-serpent Pokemon - almost the same size and weight of a Gyarados – was sent rocketing backwards through the air with another loud pain filled cry.

 _'Holy Shit_...' Palmer thought to himself in disbelief, just how the hell could a Pikachu be this powerful? So much power that it's electricity had turned blue instead of the normal yellow when released. So fast that it could appear is if it was teleporting, and so physically strong that it could launch a Pokemon that should have been a good twenty times it's height and around thirty times it's weight with just a flick of it's tail?

It was unreal! _Surreal_ to be precise! And to make matters even worse, the little devil of an Electric-type wasn't even done there.

No, when Milotic flew a good distance away, the Pikachu disappeared again! And appeared a moment later at the other side of the battlefield ready to receive Milotic with another Iron Tail attack with it used to smash Milotic flying straight up into the air.

Only for it to already be up in the air to meet Milotic and smash another Iron Tail straight into his beloved Water-type Pokemon's face once again and send it smashing into the ground below with enough force the leave a crater a few feet deep beneath it's body!

What the hell kinda shit did this kid train his Pokemon with? And where the hell could he get some!?

* * *

Ash smirked as Palmer recalled his Milotic back into it's Pokeball. The Extreme Iron Tail Combo was one of Pikachu's most devastating combo attack's, simple in it's execution, but oh so powerful.

It was really only Pikachu combining Extremespeed and Iron Tail, and then using the speed out of coming out of an Extremspeed charge to bolster Pikachu's momentum and put all that into the Iron Tail attack.

Ash beckoned Pikachu over to him. This last battle was going to be all Charizard's. He'd admit without a second thought that Palmer was a really gifted Trainer, with extremely powerful Pokemon. Had this been an entire year ago, he might have been worried.

The fact of the matter was though, that the two Pokemon he'd fought with so far just had no chance of competing with his Sceptile and Pikachu. They were his two fastest Pokemon. They were trained to hit fast and hard, and then blow shit the fuck up if that didn't get the job done in the first place.

That Rhyperior was so bulky Sceptile could have sleep walked around it and still been faster. And that Milotic was already severely outclassed in speed and power in comparison with Pikachu, when it left the safe confines of the lake waters to use that Surf attack. It was game over.

Hopefully though, Palmer wouldn't disappoint with his next Pokemon. Charizard would want a tough battle for his début in the Sinnoh Region.

Ash wasn't disappointed when Palmer tossed his final Pokeball into the air and released the Pokemon inside. A Dragonite.

Perfect, just the kind of challenge Charizard would like to stretch his wings out a bit with.


	18. Chapter 18

**And there we go, all the previous chapters have been re-uploaded. I will continue it from where I left off so long ago, but it may take some time. Either way, happy new year guys.**

* * *

The average Charizard stood at a fully grown height of five foot, seven inches. The older and more powerful the draconian Fire-type species became, the larger they grew.

The Charizard Ash released for his third Pokemon in the first round of the Meganite Tournament put the size of the average Charizard to same.

Appearing from the Pokeball, the Pokemon landed upon the rocky terrain of the battlefield with a powerful thud. Thick muscular legs indenting the ground beneath them as they stomped down into a standing position.

Ash's Charizard stood tall, fearsome and proud. Gleaming orange scales and a tail fire that could power a furnace with ease flickered powerfully in the night wind. The beast – for it surely was one – towered over the average fully grown height of its species, standing at a whopping height of ten feet.

All was silent for a moment, and then Charizard turned to the Dragonite facing him from an opposing side.

The Dragonite was well taken care of, not a blemish to be seen on its smooth yellow-orange scales. It's arms and legs were well proportioned with thick powerful muscles and despite their small size, it's wings stood high and proud on the upper half of the Dragon-type Pokemon's back.

Charizard looked the Dragonite over, appraising it for a few silent moments...and then, the draconian dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon cocked its head back and released an ear splitting roar.

The sheer power behind the roar caused the winds to kick up and shockwaves of pure force to be generated and blasted over the entire stadium.

The Dragonite was forced to cover its eyes with one arm as the powerful shockwaves blew it backwards a few feet, only stopping in place when it dug its feet into the ground below so hard that it formed small craters beneath its feet.

Palmer himself was lucky, he stood directly behind his Dragonite a few feet and so the large frame of his fully evolved Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon managed to shield him from the worst of the shock waves, although even he was still forced to push back against the winds generated by Charizard's roar with all his strength, lest he be thrown straight off of his feet.

All around the stadium, fans up in the stands cried out loudly, screams of many different emotions straining from almost each and every individual up inside the stands.

Ash though, he stood behind Charizard proudly. A smirk proudly adorned his face, his strength enhanced many times by his aura - the only reason he was able to stand so close as the shockwaves blasted away at his exposed skin.

He honestly couldn't care, he only had eyes for Charizard at the moment. It felt so damn good. Finally, he'd released the strongest Pokemon within his entire collection. Pikachu was almost as strong, but not quite there. In fact, to match Charizard Pikachu would have to release his firm control over the red electricity he'd gained from his possession by Groudon.

Charizard had no extra power up, except maybe his Blaze ability. All this power he was releasing with one roar, a roar so powerful it generated shock waves that would make a lesser Pokemon faint in fear. It was all gained through intense, day in, day out training that had been going on for more than three entire years now.

Charizard was gifted already with a massive well of power when he fully evolved. But his time at the Charicific Valley had allowed him to cultivate him, fan the flames of his power even more to turn it from a bonfire into a raging inferno.

There was a damn good reason why a legendary Pokemon as powerful as Mewtwo had trouble combating against Charizard. Charizard was beyond the understanding of normal people, he was a Pokemon that had exceeded his limits so thoroughly, that he could actually be labelled as a Legendary Pokemon on pure power alone, and that wasn't even accounting for his skill. Charizard was far from lazy, he didn't use his power as a crutch. When he put pressure on something, it's was with a razor's edge with the force of a weapon from the mushroom wars.

* * *

Up in the stands Dawn held onto her seat for dear life, even high up in the stands as she was the shockwaves reached she and her friends.

"Unreal!" Zoey shouted. Awe, disbelief and many more emotions flickered across the orange haired girl's face as she dug her nails into her seat and watched with rapt attention on the Charizard, holding with all her might again the powerful winds blasting against her.

Nando was actually blown right out of his seat. The long black haired poet rolled over and took cover from the shockwaves under the separation banister between this stand, and the stand below. Even then, it didn't protect him fully form the powerful blasts of wind, his poncho flapped widly over his face and he held onto his harp with all his power, lest it get jettisoned away from the force of Charizard's roar, "This..." The man whispered to himself, "This is just..." He couldn't even find the words within himself to describe such a powerful beast of a Pokemon.

Just how did his young friend Ash manage to raise such a Pokemon?

Dawn managed to force herself to look through the ripples of air and lock her sapphire blue eyes upon the two figures of her boyfriend and his Charizard.

She was in total, complete and utter shock. She'd known Charizard was his strongest Pokemon - besides Mewtwo that is, but the blue haired girl had no idea just the kind of power her boyfriend's most powerful Pokemon weilded.

It was one thing to hear about Charizard's strength, but another matter entirely to see it this close. She lifted a hand up to shield her eyes from the wind, the roars finally beginning to die down.

Just how the hell had he managed to train that Charizard? How could one Pokemon, pseudo-Legendary or not, be so powerful? That roar alone would have probably been enough to terrorize lesser Pokemon so thoroughly that they would flee in complete fear, or quite possibly seize up and die on the spot due to a heart attack made up of complete and utter terror.

Finally though, the awe-inspiring Charizard let its roar die down to nothing and shut its moth completely once again. All around her, Dawn could hear the panicked cries of the stands die down until nothing was left but complete and utter silence.

The blue haired girl couldn't blame them. Even she couldn't think of anything to say. To think, that her boyfriend had a Pokemon like this and he still said he was't ready to take on the Elite Four and Champion Master of a Region...

Dawn couldn't help it, she shuddered slightly. Just what kind of monsters of Pokemon did Cynthia have, if this towering draconian Pokemon, like a living deity of fire given form. Wasn't enough?

* * *

"Well...That was impressive?" The commentator ventured hesitantly. His voice, even over the speakers around the stadium seemed shaken at what had just occurred.

Him and everybody else in the stadium.

Palmer swallowed heavily, "...That was impressive." The blonde haired man stated, "But it won't be enough to scare us off, let's go Dragonite! Flamethrower!"

His Dragonite didn't hesitate for a single moment. A testament to the Pokemon's courage at the very least. It opened its mouth and shot forth a roaring torrent of flames so hot that the very air itself rippled from the heat.

Ash smirked. Challenging a Fire-type Pokemon with a Fire-type attack was fine, if your Pokemon already far outstripped that Pokemon in power.

Dragonite did not.

"Show him a real Flamethrower!" Ash barked in reply.

The torrent of flames was halfway towards Charizard when the draconian Fire-type Pokemon unleashed its very own Flamethrower attack.

The plume of fire was so big that it actually dwarfed Dragonite's own Flamethrower attack by a magnitude of at least three, and as it short forth to meet the smaller Flamethrower attack head on, the very slag of the rocky terrain of the battlefield began to sizzle and melt underneath the sheer heat presence of the flames.

The two torrents of flames met out, clashed, and a second later the smaller of the two was absorbed into the sheer power of the larger one and sent roaring backwards towards Dragonite.

"Get out of there! Into the air!" Palmer cried out desperately. Dragon-type Pokemon had an innate resistance to Fire-type attacks, but that resistance wasn't going to do much against such a powerful attack.

Dragonite by mere inches managed to lunge up into the air, avoiding the flames entirely. And Palmer cried out in fright, leaping to the side to avoid the flames that still roared forth past his previous position.

He landed harshly on the ground, but he didn't stay there long. It was a testament to the man's sheer strength of will and experience as a Trainer that allowed him to roll up into a standing position again his eyes locked on Charizard.

The flames didn't stop there though, they continued onwards to the stands and would have quite possibly killed a number of fans watching from the stands if the psychic barriers held up by multiple Psychic-Pokemon did not flare into life in the form of a massive purple energy wall that shielded them from the powerful Fire-type attack.

Even still, the flames exploded outwards forming out into a massive wall of flames that covered almost the entire barrier for dozens of metres across. And even then, the barriers rattled ominously as if just about to give out, only looking to luckily hold on as the flames burned out their power source quickly and rapidly withered away into small embers.

Ash winced seeing that. Damn, he'd have to withhold on the ranged attacks for now. They were to powerful and volatile to be used in a stadium like this with such weak barriers.

Next time he planned to battle with Charizard in this tournament, he'd have to let Mewtwo out to form his own barriers. Or else there was just no way that he could allow Charizard to go all out like that again in this tournament, and he couldn't afford that.

Not with the likes of Cynthia Shirona in this tournament.

Still though, he had a battle to win. Ash smirked over at Palmer, "Distance won't save you." He told the older Elite Level Trainer, "Charizard, into the air after it!" The raven haired teen commanded.

Charizard jumped from the ground, leaping a good few feet off the ground and with a mighty flap of his massive wingspan, he soared straight up into the sky.

Palmer seemed to be waiting for this though. "Dragonite, Dragon Rush!" The blonde haired man shouted up to his Pokemon high up in the air.

When Charizard reached a good forty feet up, Dragonite dive bombed from at least double the altitude of Charizard, his yellow-orange body erupting into a massive blue aura that flared out even larger and formed into the shape of a massive blue serpentine dragon that looked to be roaring in vengeance.

The attack was massive, way bigger than any Dawn's Altaria could have hoped to pulled off. But even so, Ash continued to smirk, "Charizard!" He shouted, gaining his Pokemon's attention, "Stop it in its tracks!" The amber eyed teen ordered.

His Pokemon nodded downwards to him and held his wings out, stopping himself mid-air and waited for the massive roaring blue dragon of energy.

Palmer looked at Ash as if he was insane, "Are you serious?" He asked in disbelief.

Ash folded his arms across his chest, turning his smirk towards Palmer, "Entirely." He replied.

There was no more time for discussion though, because Dragonite bathed in the massive blue aura of its Dragon Rush attack finally met Charizard head on and the force of the impact resulted in a huge explosion, a cataclysmic booming sound echoing out over the entire city and sending another extremely powerful shockwave blasting upwards through the sky, piercing the clouds and forcing many of them to part to reveal the dark starry night and moon hanging above.

There was silence for a moment, and then the smoke kicked up by the explosion of the Dragon Rush attack began to dwindle down into nothing...

"Impossible..." Palmer managed to breath out in sheer disbelief, his blue eyes locked solely on the figures above.

Charizard, arms thrust out had Dragonite by the shoulders tightly. The force of the attack only being enough to have pushed Charizard backwards a few feet at the very most. The aura produced by the Dragon Rush attack was dying down quickly, and everyone present could clearly see that Charizard had managed to overcome the attack, and force Dragonite's flight to come to an impromptu stop with just his clawed hands alone.

Dragonite struggled and writhed wildly in the dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon's grip, but to no avail. Charizard's grip was just too tight and strong for it to muscle out of.

"Now Siesmic Toss!" Ash commanded next.

Charizard obeyed and carried out the order. Using his grip on Dragonite's shoulders, Charizard locked his arms under the Pokemon's armpits and hugged the Flying and Dragon-type Pokemon tightly to his chest.

And then, Charizard used his wings to vault backwards into a backwards, spiralling nosedive. Speeding up with liberal use of his wings as they spun, and within mere seconds they were a few feet from the ground.

Charizard used this opportunity to let Dragonite go and allow the Pokemon to crash head first into the ground, cratering the ground deeply beneath it from the speed and force of the drop.

Charizard safely using his flings to fly out of harms way, flew over and landed powerfully in front of Ash. Flashing him a thumbs up and a smirk as it did so.

Ash smirked right back at him, "Well done, as expected you're even stronger than before." The amber eyed teen commented.

Charizard snorted a smaller jet of flames from his noise, voicing his only annoyance with that action. As if he wouldn't get any stronger? Just who did his Trainer think he was dealing with? He wasn't like the majority of the other Charizard who rested on their laurels back at the Charicific Valley, satisfied already with the amount of power that came with just being a Charizard.

No, he was not content to stew amongst the common rabble. He would continue, day in and day out. Until one day when he ascended, becoming a Charizard of legend. A god amongst Charizards. And then, he would train more and continue to grow stronger still.

Just as his Trainer Ash would one day become the greatest Trainer in all of history – this he believed full heartedly – he too would become the strongest Pokemon in all of history right alongside his Pokemon. They went hand in hand after all, the greatest Trainer in history as well as the strongest Pokemon in history.

And someday soon, even his rival Pikachu wouldn't be able to compete with him in a battle.

* * *

Cynthia Shirona had to admit, she was definitely impressed. She'd heard of young Ash Ketchum of course, even before he started making waves when he won the Battle Frontier and became a Pokemon Ranger, the youngest one in history at that.

The Champion Masters' of each Region met up a couple of times a year. Imagine her surprise when Lance Wataru, the man heralded as the strongest Trainer in the world started singing the praises of a young newby Trainer.

One did not simply gain the approval of the strongest Pokemon Trainer in the world. The story he told her of the boy back then was hard to believe, how could she fathom it? Stories about a boy who was the main reason Lance was able to capture and tame his spectacular rare colored Gyarados, a Gyarados of such power that it put the average extremely powerful behemoths' of its species to shame. Then he continued on to explain how the young man went on to rescue a Lugia as well as it's baby of all Pokemon from Team Rocket. And then just recently – at the time – had, along with his Pikachu done even more than Lance himself to quell the cataclysmic battle between Groudon and Kyogre, a battle of such sheer magnitude it could have ended with the entire human world, entirely sinking it into the depths of the ocean, or the very oceans themselves dried up.

It was amazing, to hear of a boy who was no more than twelve years of age perform such awe-inspiring feats. Imagine her rising awe once again when Lance continued onwards to tell her that even before he had met young Ash that the young teenager had saved the world by fighting alongside another Lugia to put a stop a three way battle between the Legendary Bird Trio of Kanto, Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos.

Every meeting she went to after that would include Lance in some form or another, bragging about any achievements that young Ash had managed to accomplish. In fact, Lance had taken to calling the boy his protege.

How the hell would that work out? He hadn't even taught the boy anything!

But even still, it was refreshing to see the boy in action. After all the hype getting built up around the boy, she'd expected it to be mostly false. If anything, the rumours actually underestimated Ash's skill in battling, and the power of his Pokemon.

His Sceptile was extremely powerful, and with its incredible speed, in her eyes she classified it easily as a Pokemon on the level of the Elite Four's, or even her own Pokemon. But the other two were something else altogether.

There were some Pokemon that could naturally release blue electricity, like those Pokemon of the Mareep and Pachirisu family for the most part. But, the Mareep family obtained their electricity from outwards sources, the same with the Pachirisu family in that they absorbed ambient static electricity.

But that Pikachu. Its electricity was so powerful, and had such a high level of voltage that the electricity had actually changed from yellow to blue. And that wasn't even the end of it. Even she, a Champion Master had never seen a Pokemon as fast as that Pikachu. And then once again, she'd never seen a Pokemon that was so small and weighed so little hold such amazing physical prowess.

And finally the Charizard. The fact that it could release such powerful shockwaves with just one roar alone was astounding. And then to go on and stop a full powered Dragon Rush attack by a powerful Dragonite with its bare hands alone.

Cynthia felt herself smiling. She couldn't help the excitement flowing through her veins. She was passionate about a great many things. Ancient History of Pokemon, Ice Cream and taking care of her Pokemon. But battling was above even them, it was always so exciting. With so many different Pokemon and Trainers around to battle, and all the different strategies they came up with together during battle, it made for a great time for a passionist of Pokemon battles like herself.

Just maybe Ash would meet her in the finals. It was sure to be fun, and challenging if anything else.

* * *

When the dust settled, to the surprise and delight of many in the stands. Dragonite managed to stand back up, but the Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon was not without injury. The yellow-orange scaled Dragon-type Pokemon held one arm with the other. The arm being held actually hanging limply from its shoulder, a deep purple bruise forming so dark that it could be seen clearly through the Pokemon's scales.

"Wooh! this is an epic battle for the ages folks! Even after taking such an intense Seismic Toss attack from Charizard, Dragonite has managed to get back up to its feet! Just what will these two titans of battle unleash next?" The commentator once again chimed up. And surprise surprise, the crowd began to roar and cheer once again.

Palmer thrust his arm up, "Yeah, way to go Dragonite! Let's kick this up a notch!" The blonde haired man declared, "Thunderbolt, lets go!" He ordered next.

Dragonite shook itself, letting go of its injured shoulder and released a loud cry from its maw. From the antenna on its head, a large arc of yellow electricity was launched through the air towards Charizard.

Ash didn't even have to verbalize an order. Charizard was already moving on his own, taking off into the air with a mighty flap of his wings and dodging the yellow arc of electricity with a lazy looking ease.

"After it Dragonite, use Outrage!" Palmer continued onwards, relentlessly.

Dragonite blasted off into the air after Charizard, catching up with Charizard high in the air within moments. A crimson red aura bleeding off the dual Flying and Dragon-type Pokemon's body, its eyes taking on a similar red hue.

Ash himself was looking up intently, staring at both forms of Charizard and Dragonite ascending higher and higher into the sky, the latter of the duo gaining on Charizard quickly with each passing moment.

Dragonite the dragon Pokemon. The species as a whole had a lot of rumours floating around about them. They were usually kindhearted, on average as intelligent as any human and were said to watch over those who travelled the ocean and save them if they were shipwrecked or lost at sea.

But not only that, along with being the Psuedo-Legendary Pokemon species of the Kanto Region, Dragonite were said to be able to circle the entire globe in just sixteen hours. And then it was also said, that if they continued on such a trip, with nothing to impede their way at all they could and would be able to reach a speed that was faster than the speed of sound.

Truly they were an amazing species of Pokemon. Ash smirked to himself, later on he supposed he would have to go about catching a Dratini of his own, but for now. He had a battle to win.

The Dragonite gave a loud roar as it reached equal with Charizard, and then heaved backwards and practically bum rushed Charizard from the side, intending to barrel straight into the dual Flying and Fire-type Pokemon with its Outrage enhanced body and anger.

At the last moment though, Charizard used an old strategy coined by Ash way back in his days through the Orange Islands. With a quick flick of his tail, Charizard brought himself into a sideways spin and narrowly dodged the makeshift body slam attack.

Ash's smirk stretched as the Dragonite sailed right over Charizard, and his Pokemon got into the air behind the larger orange dragon.

"Steel Wing!" The amber eyed teen ordered swiftly. His shouted command echoing into the air above, over the roaring crowds.

Charizard spun once again, but this time forwards and upwards, ascending over Dragonite, both of his wings exploding into powerful silvery white energy.

Palmer wasn't about to take that sitting down though, "Hit back with Thunderpunch!" The blonde haired elite shouted straight after Ash.

Charizard swung downwards with a wing strike straight after, just as Dragonite snapped itself from its Outrage induced stupor and turned sideways in the air to strike out with a fist crackling with the power of electricity.

Both strikes met, Thunderpunch against Steel Wing and they clashed. Wind exploded around both Pokemon, blowing away any clouds near them and they stayed deadlocked for a few moments.

Finally, another moment later Charizard pushed through – being the physically stronger of the duo – and ended up sending Dragonite flying back a good twenty feet. Although, unluckily for Ash and Charizard taking no damage from the exchange.

Ash cursed, 'Smart.' The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger thought to himself. He wasn't quite sure himself how it all played out scientifically. But, Steel-type Pokemon and attacks were a natural conductor for Electric-type attacks. It was weird, but they kind of cancelled each other out for the most part.

When Dragonite's Thunderpunch met Charizard's Steel Wing, they mostly negated each other. The typing attributes of Charizard's Steel Wing naturally, instead of allowing Charizard to hurt Dragonite, began to counteract the electricity of the Thunderpunch attack.

Ash scowled and shook his head. He wasn't freaking Gary! He didn't spend all of his time reading up on this crap, he preferred to battle with his gut.

"Hyper Beam!" Palmer shouted, breaking Ash from his musings.

Dragonite recovered mid-air and opened its gaping maw once again, an orange sphere of energy cackling into life infront of its open mouth before the dragon Pokemon thrust its head forward and the orb along with it, the orb exploding into a widespread ominous orange beam of destruction.

"Flamethrower!" Ash countered. Thankfully, both Pokemon were so far above the stadium that there would be nobody to get caught in the crossfire of their attacks this time.

Charizard was ready, willing and able to follow the command. The power took less than a moment to build up, and then Charizard was unleashing it into a fiery inferno that met the widespread Hyper Beam head on.

The two attacks pushed against each other for a moment, but the Hyper Beam was quickly beginning to lose ground to Charizard's Flamethrower, before it literally exploded powerfully and scattered the flames of the attack to the four winds.

Charizard was already rushing through the smoke though. With a few flap of his wings, Charizard cleared the distance between himself and the smoke and was flying straight through towards Dragonite's previous position.

Ash down below cursed though. The power of the Hyper Beam attack had actually forced Dragonite back another good few dozen metres, giving it more space to work with.

The Pokemon hadn't even awaited for an order from Palmer this time. Instead, it took this opportunity into its own hands. With Charizard blocked out within the smoke, the Dragonite roared forward its body once again covered in the massive blue roaring draconic visage-like aura that was a Dragon Rush attack.

Charizard came flying out of the smoke, just in time to take the attack head on. The blue draconic visage erupted into a large blinding pillar of blue energy that reached all the way down to the floor of the battlefield.

Ash though didn't even bat an eye when he heard and felt a mighty crash in the battlefield, along with seeing a massive plume of smoke being kicked up as the pillar of blue energy died down.

Dragonite jumped from the smoke, bent over and panting heavily in front of its trainer. The Pokemon's left arm was a mess, caked with dried blood and the top half of the arm turned a deep blue from the bruising it had sustained. It was easily seen, even through the Pokemon;s scales.

Palmer thumbed his nose, "Heh heh, that's all she wrote Ash." The blonde man said.

Ash smirked, "As if." He replied with a snort, "You'd be lucky if an attack of that level even fazed Charizard." The raven haired teen stated.

And as if to prove his point, the column of smoke and dust withered away to reveal Charizard standing proud and tall, head held high and naught a mark upon his body, not even a slight bruising.

Charizard, as if mocking his opponent snorted two small plumes of fire from his nostrils. The message was not lost on Dragonite, who actually to the surprise of many took a step backwards away from Charizard.

"N-no way..." Palmer uttered in disbelief, his blue eyes wide and flickering with self doubt, "It took no damage at all from Dragonite's Dragon Rush attack?" The blonde haired man questioned dubiously.

Ash smirked, but made no move to retort. Oh it had done damage alright, but not nearly enough to damage Charizard through his extremely tough skin. The Dragonite was strong, no doubt about that. In fact, Ash could say that it was very nearly as strong as Drake the leader of the Orange Crew's Dragonite.

But Charizard was dead-even with that Pokemon three years ago. And since then, Charizard had only grown in leaps and bounds. The Charizard of back then was extremely powerful, but right now he wouldn't even consider that level of Pokemon as a threat at all.

So while the Dragon Rush probably smarted a bit, and left quite the stinging sensation. It was nothing to Charizard.

This level of Pokemon just wasn't in Charizard's league. The Pokemon was so far outclassed that to be perfectly honest with himself, Ash had been taking this battle at a leisurely pace. Getting back in tune with Charizard as it were, it had been a little while since they battled together after all. A good few months at the very least.

* * *

Palmer gulped audibly. The blonde man could feel the sweat from his palms soaking through his black gloves. He was honestly at a complete and total loss as to what he should do in this situation.

Dragon Rush was Dragonite's most powerful attack, except for Outrage. And for that Charizard to take it point blank and receive no damage whatsoever brought him to a stupefied disbelief.

His only chance was to batter at the Charizard with attacks that it was weak against. Sadly, Dragonite had no Water-type attacks, nor did it have any Rock-type attacks. So that left him with Thunderbolt and Thunderpunch.

First things first though. He had to get distance between Dragonite and that beast of a Charizard. The dual Fire and Flying-type's long ranged attacks were extremely powerful, but it was the Pokemon's unreal physical strength that Dragonite could not hope to match even at his strongest. It did catch his Dragonite's Dragon Rush and stop it with its bare hands after all.

"Dragonite!" The blonde haired Elite shouted, drawing his Pokemon's attention from the menacing Charizard opposing it, "Get into the air as fast as you can!" He ordered.

Dragonite was only to happy to obey the order. Ignoring its useless left arm, Dragonite shot up into the air as fast as possible and continued onwards and upwards hoping to put as much distance between itself and Charizard as completely possibly.

That Charizard scared Dragonite. Psuedo-legendary Pokemon were not supposed to be toyed with so easily! They weren't supposed to be toyed with at all!

* * *

Ash watched the Dragonite fly as fast as it could into the sky with some amusement. It was honestly the first time he'd ever seen a Pokemon so powerful cower and flee.

His amber colored eyes flickered over to his Charizard. Charizard had his head cocked and was looking at Ash expectantly.

He sighed. Guess they should stop playing around now, it was time to end this battle once and for all. There really wasn't much else he and Charizard could get out of this battle.

Palmer was good, but he had no strategies that Ash wanted. He was a typical power type Trainer that relied on the power of his Pokemon in most battles. Despite all the hype about this so called Tower Tycoon, he really wasn't all that good. Anyone of the Frontier Brain's in Kanto would have soundly beaten this guy as well.

Still, he was good nonetheless. He was what Ash expected all the average level Elite Trainer's to be at. Sadly, he wasn't within the ranks of the Elite of the Elite.

And without being at that level, he just couldn't hang up close and personal with Ash and his older Pokemon.

He met Charizard's eyes with his own and nodded his head upwards towards the Dragonite in the sky, "After it, full speed." The raven haired teen commanded simply.

Charizard nodded. Using his tail, Charizard spun around once in place, and then using his powerful leg muscles, blasted off the battlefield – the ground cratering slightly beneath this feet – and shot into the air like a bullet.

So fast in fact that the sound barrier broke and rumbled loudly throughout the skies.

Charizard was upon Dragonite in moments, ascending the depths of the skies and catching up easily. The Dragonite looked back over its shoulder, saw Charizard and panicked. Attempting to fly faster than ever before.

But it was for naught. Before the Dragonite could reach the speed its species was renowned for in the air, Charizard spun overhead and got right above the yellow-orange colored Dragon-type Pokemon just in time for Ash's next order.

"Dragon Tail!" Ash shouted up to Charizard.

Flipping overhead, Charizard swung downwards with his tail. Mid-spin, Charizard's tail exploded with a bright cyan colored energy that encased the entirety of his tail, flame and all. Following through on his spin, Charizard smashed the Dragon Tail attack straight down atop Dragonite's cranium.

For the second time that night, the sound barrier was broken. But this time from the force generated into the Dragon Tail that hit Dragonite.

The force of the attack sent Dragonite plummeting so fast there was a visible conic ripple of air at it shot straight down, and within less than a second the large dual Dragon and Flying-type Pokemon crashed powerful into the ground of the battlefield, shaking the entire arena from the force of the landing and kicking up a massive tower of smoke and debris.

"Dragonite!" Plamer cried out in worry, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. Damnit! Damnit, there just wasn't anything he could have done here!

His self berating was cut off though a moment later.

"Giga Impact." Ash continued. Amber eyes little more than cold steel orbs. Like he had told Dawn earlier, he was taking no chances in this tournament. He wasn't going to give Dragonite any time to recover at all.

Charizard shot downwards from the sky, body in cased in a massive purple aura of power, and it itself encased by a layering of spiralling orange energy.

Once more Charizard could be likened to a weapon of war as another roar vibrated the very air around him. Like a artillery shell screaming for the ground, so too did the glowing beast, a shout of power and victory issuing forth.

The glow was briefly hidden by the tower of smoke and debris, but it wasn't for long as moments later, another rumble settled over the arena, coupled with a flash of light, and the entire battlefield shook from the force of Charizard's attack hitting home.

There was utter silence. Not even the crowd made a noise as they all waited in baited breath.

Ash folded his arm cross his chest and without a single facial expression, watched the cloud of smoke and debris as it began to wither away into nothingness.

Finally, after nearly a good minute the cloud disappeared entirely and revealed the contents within.

The first to come into view was Charizard. The dual Fire and Flying-type stood tall and proud, arms just like his Trainer Ash, folded across his chest. And then finally, Dragonite was revealed as well. The Pokemon lay face down within a deep crater, only the back of the Pokemon being shown and even then, nearly half the entire Pokemon's body had tuned a deep purple from bruising. Even if it was awake and wanted to move, it couldn't.

Charizard had one of his clawed feet pushing down harshly upon the Pokemon's back, keeping it form making any sudden movements, in case it was awake that was.

The silence stretched on. Palmer himself couldn't even bring himself to say anything, just staring at the prone and defeated form of his strongest Pokemon and lamenting on that fact that they never stood a chance against Ash in the first place.

The silence was eventually broken by the commentator, "Wow...Just wow folks! In a stunning display of strength and power, Charizard has taken down Palmer's Dragonite! And that's all she wrote folks! The winner of this match and going on to the second round of the Meganite Tournament is Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!"

The crowd was quiet for a moment. And then, the moment ended and they exploded into a massive ear splitting roar. The screams and applause of the crowd rose so high that most could barely hear themselves think. And then they began to chant 'Ash' and 'Charizard' in tandem, over and over again.

Ash shook his head in amusement. Crowd were so easy to please these days. Just watching a couple of Pokemon beat each other down was all it took to get these people going. It was really quite sad actually. Did they have no other things to amuse themselves with other than watching extremely powerful creatures beat each other half to death?

Ash shook his head. He had to stop thinking like that nowadays. The majority of Pokemon battled because they wanted to do it for themselves or their Trainers. No need to go labelling all of his own kind as barbaric morons. He would kinda by proxy be calling himself one as well if he did anyway.

He looked up just in time to see Palmer return his Dragonite into its Pokeball. The blonde haired man rubbed at the back of his head slightly and then began making his way over towards Ash.

Ash decided to meet him halfway and walked forwards until he stood beside the crater Charizard was currently situated in. "Well that was a good battle Ash." Palmer told him with a shaky smile as he reached the raven haired teen, "I can honestly say me and my Pokemon have never had our asses handed to us quite like that." He continued, forcing out a laugh and holding his hand out towards Ash.

Ash met the hand with his own and gripped tightly, just as Palmer done with him. "It was fun, and your Pokemon were really strong, it's not often that my three strongest Pokemon get to cut loose like that." The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger replied as they shook hands.

Palmer had to hold back a laugh of disbelief. His Pokemon were really strong? Then what the hell did that make Ash's? Legendary?

"Heh, I guess me and my Pokemon need to get back into training harder." Palmer said instead of what he was thinking, "You've really driven home for me just how far I still need to go to be considered one of the best Pokemon Trainer's around. So thank you." The blonde man finished. With that, he broke the handshake between himself and Ash and turned on his heel to make his way out of the battlefield, tossing a wave over his shoulder as he done so.

Ash watched him go for a moment before turning towards Charizard and smirking, "Good to see you haven't lost your edge in the last few months." The amber eyed teen stated, "In fact, I think you might actually be quite a bit stronger than you were when we fought Brandon."

Charizard, at the mention of the Pyramid Brain, snorted a plume of fire in annoyance; and Ash knew why. When they battled against Brandon, Charizard had dominated the fight against his Dusclops. But fell prey to under-handed stat effecting attacks. But even then, pulled through and went for the finish only for the Dusclops to hit Charizard with a Destiny Bond technique right at the very end and taking Charizard down with it.

Charizard wasn't a fan of Pokemon battling like that. He loved to battle straight out against his opponent, clashing against them at full power and fighting until they could fight no longer. A Pokemon like the Dusclops managing to tie in a battle with Charizard stung his pride. Especially because Charizard was so much more powerful than Dusclops was.

Ash laughed, "Don't worry buddy, I've worked on a few fail safes in case we ever get into a battle like that again, next time I won't allow for you to be cheated out of your victory." The raven haired teen reassured his Pokemon.

Charizard snorted another plume of flames from his nostrils and flashed away a clawed thumbs-up. He knew he could always count on Ash to come up with a plan for these type of things. He wasn't all that smart, Charizard knew he wasn't. He was the muscle, Ash was the brains so he would leave the strategising up to his Trainer. He trusted him with his life, and knew Ash would not let him down.

That said, Ash lifted Charizard's Pokeball and returned the dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon back within it in a beam of red energy and began making his way out of the arena, idly clipping Charizard's Pokeball back onto his silver belt.

Damn he was hungry. Hopefully there was some good take-away joint near or on the way towards the Pokemon Center he and Dawn were staying it.

"Let's hear it one more time for Ash Ketchum folks!"

Ash merely continued onwards as the crowd roared his name to the heavens above. He idly mused that he could quite probably expect a fanclub in the Sinnoh Region now. It was to be expected of course, every well known Trainer had one. And he was becoming pretty well known these days.

* * *

"Wow, that was just amazing!" Zoey gushed, clapping heartily along with the roaring crowd, "That Charizard was unreal! And did you see how brutal that last combo was?" The orange haired girl continued, "I think that Dragon Tail was enough to put Dragonite out of commission but I guess Ash wasn't willing to take any chances if he followed that up with a Giga Impact of all things."

Nando beside her let loose a smooth chuckle, "Indeed, young Ash has surely trained his Charizard well, in fact I do believe I have never seen a single Pokemon quite as powerful as that Pokemon in my life." The handsome harp player agreed. It was oh so interesting for him to see just how a Trainer as accomplished as Ash battled. Even now after seeing him battle, he couldn't quite determine just how Ash liked to battle. One thing was for sure though about his young friend, he liked his Pokemon fast and with a lot of fire power behind him.

* * *

Dawn made her way quickly through the crowd, Piplup held tightly in her arms and Mewtwo's Pokeball hanging securely around her neck. As she walked, her mind was racing a mile a minute.

So that was Ash's strongest Pokemon? Dawn had to admit, he didn't disappoint. Palmer was quite well known in the Sinnoh Region for having many extremely powerful Pokemon, his strongest being the Dragonite. He had become the Tower Tycoon just as year previous after all, and that was no small feat.

To see his most powerful Pokemon being manhandled by her boyfriend's Charizard really put it into perspective for her just how much Ash held back on her in their training sessions.

His Pokemon never attacked at full power, or speed. And even then, when they did hit, there was no follow up. Nothing like that Dragon Tail followed by Giga Impact combo by Charizard.

And she thought her Ursaring could be intimidating? Her poor poor Ursaring would probably piss itself in fear if it ever came up against Charizard and seen what her boyfriend's most powerful Pokemon could do.

The blue haired girl shook her head, best not think on it at the moment. Her mind couldn't fully comprehend just how powerful that Charizard was at the moment anyway. Best to leave it until she got a look at the Pokemon up close and personal.

So she continued onwards, walking quickly to the Pokemon Center. She wanted to be the first to congratulate her boyfriend on such a swift victory.


End file.
